Succession of Forest
by Pernshinigami
Summary: Still mourning Donna, the doctor discovers a centuries old secret of his people, and the key to uncovering it lies with sibling timelords Mori and Damon, heirs to a story the Doctor's people forgot. full summary inside.... rating change for sweet yaoi....
1. Chapter 1

If any Who fans want to KILL me for this fanfic, go right ahead. I described it from the first as "an abomination unto the Dr. Who canon." I'm just fooling around with it. And if my idea isn't quite as cracktastic as I think it is, review, tell me, I might continue. If its bad, review, and throw a few tomatoes. I absolutely love Dr. Who, and if I ruin it I will never forgive myself. ;

I came up with it when I'd finished watching "Journey's End" for the 4th time and "Doomsday" for the third and was right in the middle of Torchwood series 2 ep Adrift (and Ianto and Jack getting walked in, BUCK nekkid on by Gwen is CLASSIC by the way) for the third time as well.

The Title "Succession of Forest" comes from the main character's name, "Mori" which means "Forest" in Japanese. And Mori's brother Damon is my attempt at creating Jack's dream boyfriend. His name is from the myth "Damon and Pythias" after the character who waited behind to die in Pythias' place if he didn't return. Kinda sets the tone for how he got where he did in the story.

Full Summary: Still mourning Donna, the doctor discovers a centuries old secret of his people, and the key to uncovering it lies with sibling timelords Mori and Damon, heirs to a story the Doctor's people forgot. The discovery parts ways for the siblings, Mori following Doctor to the stars, Damon staying behind to defend earth with Torchwood. Neither able to fight a destiny written over a thousand years before...

* * *

Anguished, broken, the Doctor rode the tardis through time. He'd lost Donna, he'd lost Donna and there was nothing he could do.

Even if Darvos was dead, the damage he had done to the Doctor's psyche had the last of the timelords deeply depressed. As always, the Tardis responded to his thoughts, bringing him through time and space to where he needed to be. A place so strongly burned into recent memory that he could find it asleep or unconscious or dead.

Battle, two of the greatest enemies of the timelords and the universe clashing over a beautiful, clever, innocent young world. The day that Rose was ripped from his life. The day the world almost ended, and didn't because she sacrificed her happiness, her future, for the planet's protection.

Sadness, so much sadness...

The Tardis came to a stop, and the Doctor almost didn't respond to its urge to rise. He was too tired, he just needed time to absorb the biggest battle he had ever fought, and the hot tempered redhead who had been its greatest casualty.

Just like Rose, Donna had paid a horrible price for his company. And after a very old and bitter enemy calling him a destroyer of worlds, Doctor was very, very close to blaming himself for what had happened to both of them. It was stupid, maybe 48 hours earlier he wouldn't have thought the same. But so much had happened that had brought the Doctor just shy of the breaking point inside of one day. Losing Donna had been the straw that broke the proverbial camel's back.

He was depressed enough, the noise around the Tardis, laser fire, cries of "Exterminate! Exteeerrrrminate!" and the whirring of cybermen limbs didn't rouse him.

But something did...

It was a familiar whirrrrr of a sonic tool. And an unfamiliar yell of. "OY! BUCKET HEADS!! Turn and run or I'll use this thing!!"

"Any human who defies us must be EXTERMINATED!"

That startled Doctor out of his stupor. "What in blazes?"

He threw open the tardis door. It took all of ten seconds for him to process what he'd walked into.

Dahleks vs. Cybermen, the death of rose, doubled back on himself, new york city, brooklyn.

A girl about high school age with long, rippling black hair and wild pale gold eyes, yes gold eyes, was leveling a sonic tool at a trio of dahleks. "I don't know what the hell this is or what it does, but I know you don't like it! Stay back or I'll use it!!"

"Dahleks do not fear sonic weapons. Dahleks do not fear foolish humans. Dahleks will /exterminate/ humans!!"

"Not without given yeh a FIGHT!!" Whhhhrrrrrr! WHAM! The girl's eyes blazed, as she aimed a kick, a savate snap that would have punctured a human voicebox, to knock the dahlek over. The sonic pen clasped in her hand scrambled its suits processors, it /stayed/ down.

"Sonic weapon... how did a human get a sonic weapon?" The Doctor waited at the door, ready to bolt as soon as it was safe to find out.

The girl leapt, whirling a capoeira kick to whack another out of the way. She leveled her sonic tool again the instant the third dahlek fired, and the feedback sent the girl flying backwards with a CRACK!! and hit the pavement, fallen limp.

"Not another..." The doctor's eyes darted over the scene. There had to be something he could do here...

"Target has been exterminated, returning to main Dahlek forces." The Dahlek moved on, and the Doctor bolted for the crumpled form on the ground.

Fingers to the pulsepoint showed no heartbeat. "She's gone..." The doctor sounded depressed, disappointed. Just one more tragedy in million. One more death in an existance of deaths and destruction.

What point was there?

And then adventure showed itself in one of a million, billion trillion, INFINATE faces and puzzles.

The girl's body glowed golden, and then the gold faded away, evaporating into a pale mist. The girl's body began to heave, deep ragged breaths straining for existance.

"Heeeellooo what are you?" Doctor asked as he knelt by the broken form on the ground.

The girl simply let out a groan, tears forming at the edges of her eyes. Laboring for breath, body shivering violently.

"I'd better get you someplace safe... whatever you are. I can hide the tardis but you need to rest." The Doctor scooped her up. "Small, but not light." The sonic tool fell from her grasp. "Woops, better get that too." He grabbed it, pocketing the item quickly.

He brought the girl into the Tardis, finding a pillow and blanket and setting her down where he could monitor her.

He placed a hand on her chest. "Breathing is ragged, has a pulse." Then he pressed his stethoscope to her chest. "Oh no, oh no no no no no way." Babump heart one, heart one is good because humans have one heart. Babump...

Two hearts, two hearts is bad, because only timelords have two hearts. He would have /sensed/ if there were others besides him. Why didn't he sense them until now?

The Doctor Donna

Human metaphasic crisis

"Can't be..."

the girl groaned.

"No way."

half conscious, she shook her head, trying to clear it.

"Its impossible."

The sonic tool crashed to the ground, he'd dropped it in surprise, triggering a holographic message. A woman with equally black hair, and glimmering sapphireblue eyes appeared. "Morigan my dearest daughter. I'm sorry that its come to this. If this message has triggered, then you have begun on a very cruel destiny, and I am not here to protect you any longer. If this message has triggered, then the world must be in grave and horrible danger. You need to rest, this message will only trigger if the Right of Incarnation has begun. Your body is literally changing from human into something new, and you'll be exhausted and weak for a long time. And there is a long, long story that you need to absorb, a story eons and eons long and filled with pain, emptiness, and triumph.

"Ages, and ages, and ages ago there was an ancient order, no, an ancient race, known as the Timelords. But in order to save everything, they had to make the ultimate sacrifice, there are only two left, one a bringer of infinate potential, the other a master of chaos and destruction. They warred for millions and millions of lives and loves and dramas that spanned existance.

"There were a scarce few who knew that the timewar was coming, knew that the destruction of their world was nigh and that they could not avoid it. Their beloved world of Galifrey would die. But their people didn't have to die with it. In defiance of their own rules and conventional wisdom, they took stepts to ensure that someday, somewhere, somewhen, their species would be able to make a comeback. A few humans who had come to know of the timelords, oooooh, had to be too many centuries ago, sacrificed themselves to be ships, arks if you will, to preserve their people.

"It would take centuries to reach complete strength, but a gene was passed through the generations, gaining strength with each successive generation of humans after the original. When the time was right, the right shock, the right trigger, would stimulate a transformation from human to timelord. A complete transformation, because a hybrid is genetically unstable and impossible. There are others like you out there, if you want to revive the timelords, find them! Together you won't have a planet to return to, but you will have a people to protect, a banner to rally under, a pain and sacrifice to share and remember.

"My dearest lovely brave daughter, if I am not there to defend you, then let my love take you through the centuries to come. This pen is a sonic weapon. Its a perfect all purpose tool that you'll have eons to learn how to use. Let it be your sword. Let my love follow you into the stars, Morigan, Child of Time. Daughter of Galifrey's Ghost." The holigram faded, the tool going dark.

The doctor sat down, hard, on the floor of the Tardis. In one last final act of defiance before their destruction, his people had chosen humans, brilliant resourceful selfless dedicated humans, to return the timelords to life.

The girl took more, deep, shuddering breath, head shaking in confusion as she struggled to wake.

"I have to get you out of here... and i know somebody who will be /more/ than able to help me with you." The tardis faded out and away, making a beeline to Martha and UNIT. He would have to go to a point a few months after the Dahlek's stolen earth, giving Unit enough time to rest and rebuild and return to some semblance of normalcy.

The tardis sawed to existance in the storage bay for Unit's headquarters in Manhatten. Years forward, what? 3 years? Almost 4? About 6 months after the stolen earth should be safe.

Crossing his fingers that Martha would be on the other side the Doctor grabbed the girl, carrying her in his arms, pocketed her sonic pen, and hurried out. "MARTHA!!"

She was on the other side of the door, he had been accurate. But she was alone. Good thing, he'd rather not have to deal with military soldiers right now. "MARTHA!! Help me!!"

Martha had been looking forwards to some time alone, Unit was moving its headquarters after the incident with the Dahleks. The place had been ravaged, so she couldn't blame them. She had offered to take an inventory of what was left after the attack and decide what should be removed and salvaged.

And the Doctor came running once more, and she had never heard of him asking for help, and there was a girl she didn't know? "Doctor, calm down, bring her here." Martha rushed over to help him ease the girl to the ground. "There's a cot and some sleeping bags over there." She pointed, "Get them for me, and tell me what's happened."

"Its a long story." The doctor dragged the cot and bedding over, "Short version, she's another timelord."

"What? But isn't that a good thing?" Martha demanded, alarmed. "It means you're not alone anymore." She helped the Doctor transfer the unconscious girl onto the cot.

"Yes, but how it came about is the problem." The Doctor sat down on the nearest crate. "Here, this should explain most of it." He pulled out the girl's sonic pen. "When I was carrying her I dropped it, it triggered a message explaining what had happened, just no details." He pushed the button to replay the message.

Martha frowned, glancing over at the girl on the cot. "So she's the descendant of one of these arks?" She asked worriedly. "You're /sure/ you saw her regenerate?" She asked, eyeing the Doctor. "But her appearance stayed the same?"

The Doctor nodded. "I think, when she died it kicked the gene for the transformation in. That's the part of her that changed, not her outside appearance."

Martha nodded, glancing down at the girl worriedly. "Whatever happens, whoever she is, this isn't going to go well when she wakes up." Then something dawned on her. "Doctor, do you think there are others like her, not in /this/ era but in ages past in Earth's history?"

The Doctor shook his head. "From the message, it sounds more like... ooooh I think I've figured out what they did! The gene required wasn't complete with the first generation of Arks... they fixed it so that the gene required for triggering the transformation would form over several generations, several centuries. They meant it just for /this/ when, this place, this century."

"But why?"

The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Look at human history? Ages past humans tended to be frightened of something beyond themselves. a timelord? He or she would have been burned at the stake if they'd surfaced anywhen else. The twentieth and twentyfirst centuries are when humankind finally begins to shine, your consciousness expands and human civilization gets more tolerant and more receptive to change. Its the perfect when and where for a comeback of the timelords."

"That doesn't help her though." Martha cautioned. "What would it be like for you Doctor? If you suddenly woke up and weren't a timelord anymore? That's the same thing that she's going to go through."

The Doctor sobered. "Its not going to be easy for her, no." and the two lapsed into silence. "What happened here?" The doctor asked, breaking the uncomfortable quiet. "Its deserted."

"Unit decided to move their headquarters." Martha explained. "Since so many people died here, they decided it was better if they left the place abandoned. I'm here to figure out what can be salvaged and what's broken beyond repair."

"I see..."

"I heard about Donna... I'm sorry. At least she's still alive, and... I really don't think I could have done what she did." Martha said with a gentle sigh, trying to reassure the Doctor. "You did the right thing, you saved her..."

"Somehow, it doesn't feel like I did." The Doctor sighed. "I went back, back to the battle that landed Rose in another dimension. Three years ago in calender time."

"You were needed." martha indicated the girl. "That's how it always happens, someone needs you, and you come." When the Doctor stayed silent, Martha worried even more, but she didn't push the issue.

The girl's body convulsed, gasping, struggling to breathe again. Martha quickly checked her pulse and breathing. "Shakey, but she seems to be alright."

"Her nerve centers are adjusting to having to move two hearts." The Doctor said softly. "That was what happened with Donna. Her body couldn't take having a Timelord's mind. Adrenaline kept her going through the battle, but once everyone was gone and that rush had calmed down, her mind started to overload. If I hadn't done what I did, she'd have developed the same trouble breathing, passed out, died. Her mind wouldn't have remembered which she was, the parts of her brain that controlled vital functions wouldn't have known which species she was supposed to be. A metacrisis between two genetically incompatible species always results in death. That's why what my people did with these... Arks, they could only have it one way or the other, both wouldn't have done anyone any good."

The girl shuddered again, then groaned. "My head..." She muttered weakly.

"Are you alright?" Martha demanded, alarmed.

"I could seriously use an asprin." The girl groaned. "And a soda, and a big mac with a shake. I'm starving. But being still alive is a start..." Her body slacked. "I'm so weak, I don't even have the energy to move." She said faintly.

"You're going to be fine, just rest, you're safe." Martha said gently.

"I know I'm going crazy." The girl groaned. "Your accent, brittish, you visiting New York?" She asked weakly.

"I work here in New York, I'm a doctor and I work with the military." Not the whole truth but close enough...

"A doctor huh? That's why I'm alright then? Well Doc? is it bad?" She joked.

"You'll be alright, you need to get a good rest but you're going to be fine." Martha said warmly. "I'm Martha, Martha Jones, and you?"

The girl grinned. "Mum named me Morigan. But Mori is fine." Mori mumbled. "Mori means forest... Mori Leigh Warren. Martha, my brother Damon is out there somewhere... can you... can you try to find him? Please?" She sounded desperate.

"Sure Mori..." Martha looked helplessly at the Doctor. She /hated/ having to lie, but what could she say? Mori you traveled forwards in time three years and we don't know where your brother is? "... you've been having trouble breathing, are you feeling alright? Beyond the headache..."

"My whole body is tingling, like its waiting for something." Mori said quietly. "Its a... dizzying feeling. Does that even make sense? I got shot, but I'm feeling euphoric?"

"Yeah. It doesn't." Martha looked up at the Doctor for some kind of cue. "You have my friend here to thank for even being alive."

The Doctor smiled, even though Mori's eyes were closed. "You scared me a bit there Mori. You're safe though."

"He was visiting New York to see me. He's a Doctor too..." Mori groaned, cracking her eyes open and struggling to rise. "Easy!" Martha warned, mildly alarmed.

Mori gasped, then squeezed her eyes shut. "I don't know what hurts more, my head, my eyes or my chest." Slowly she became more and more aware. "Its quiet out, is it all over?"

Martha and Doctor looked at each other, "Can you stand Mori?" The doctor asked at last. "I want to show you something."

"If I stand up I'm going to fall over." Mori groaned. "That thing, that tool mom gave me, I lost it."

"I didn't." The Doctor said with a smile. "Here." He held it up, before pressing it back into Mori's hands. "Don't lose it. Now, Martha take one arm, I'll take the other." He nodded in the direction of the Tardis.

"What's a phonebooth doing here?" Mori asked. "Superman?" She said sarcastically.

"You'll see, here, lean on me." Mori groaned, threatening to topple over.

"My head... my arms and legs won't work right..."

"its alright, you just need to go a little ways..." The Doctor coaxed, Mori gulped and set her jaw, focusing on each step. "Heeeere we go?"

"What the fucking hell?" Mori demanded. "its huge in here..." She sat as soon as the Doctor helped her to a seat against the wall. "What is this place?"

"Its a ship..." The Doctor said with a grin. "My ship, that's how I pulled you out of there. Its a timeship."

"A /timeship/ as in a time /machine?/ HG Wells that kind of time machine?" Mori appeared ready to faint the instant there was no sign of danger. The instant she had a place to lie down and rest she was going to sleep for a week.

"aaah, sort of. When you were attacked, I brought you inside the Tardis and brought you forwards a couple of years. I thought it was safer. Besides, Martha didn't know me then, i needed her to keep an eye on you in case something bad happened."

"And I need more equipment to be certain Doctor. You said that a human timelord hybrid would die? We don't know if there's any danger to Mori either, I need to monitor her condition. And I want to make sure Jack's team is alright after the Dahleks. All I got from him was a brief written message that the Hub for Torchwood had been damaged and they were starting repairs." Martha said worriedly. "Besides, Owen has more equipment than I do at the moment. The infirmary I practiced in looks like a disaster area. And even if it were usable, my people were slaughtered inside it. I won't treat somebody where people were... murdered by the dahleks, it wouldn't be right."

"What are you two talking about? The attack you pulled me out of?" Mori asked, not quite tracking.

"No, there was a massive incident about six months ago. The dahleks, the... pod shaped creatures that attacked you, had returned. They pulled the Earth literally out of time and space, transferring it to another dimension. They slaughtered humans indiscrimenantly, and took out every military base they could find. That includes this one."

"Do you /really/ want to subject her to Jack... look at the shape she's in." The Doctor demanded.

"He's perfectly fine, he might even be the best thing." Martha avowed. Then she decided to tease. "Tell me, Doctor, did Jack hit on you?" Martha's eyes glimmered mischiviously.

The Doctor sputtered, as close to a blush on his face as Martha had ever seen him "He did not. I simply think he's a litttle too... trigger happy?" The Doctor tried to find a polite term.

"I'm surprised he didn't. Jack hits on everyone." Martha giggled. "What makes you think you'd be any different?" She said with a mischievious grin. "He's changed a lot since you first met. Don't worry. But they have equipment I might need if she..." she indicated Mori. "Takes a turn for the worse..."

"Who's this... Jack?" Mori asked.

Doctor and Martha gave each other a look, and Martha started laughing. "He's a friend of mine, leads Torchwood down in Cardiff."

"As in Wales?"

"Yeah, that Cardiff."

Mori glared. "I've spent my whole life in this godforsaken glass tower city. I feel like crap, they have an infirmary, and its anywhere but here. When I'm feeling better, I'll try to come back for my brother but..."

"Alright." Doctor sighed, a small smile curling his face. "I'll take you there."

Mori grunted, then cried out when the Tardis first started to lurch. Tensing she hung on to the nearest cable and shook. There was the... the sense of excitement, and the faintest, faintest feeling of familiarity. she was clinging for her life, in an alien time machine, she shouldn't be familiar with anything, but it felt more like deja vous than anything else. "Its alright." Martha bent next to Mori to make sure she wasn't going to pass out. "Are you okay?"

"My head is going to split open." Mori muttered. "I'm gonna need to lean on somebody to stand, I think I might pass out." Her body and senses were completely disoriented.

* * *

The Tardis began to appear in the exact spot it had their /last/ visit. Gwen looked up and called. "Jaaack! Visitors!" As if it were a common occurance.

Jack Harkness peered over the railing and then bolted to greet the Tardis. "Well this is a surprise. Here I thought he didn't like me." Jack said amiably. "Only been six months since the dahleks, I'd have thought he'd show up before now."

"He probably has Martha with him." Owen had looked up from his work, then entered the room to greet the Doctor. "I never got to meet him you know."

"neither did I." Toshiko entered from a different direction. "I got an e-mail from Damon. He's going to be late, he said not to worry." She grinned. "You know Jack, you two were made for each other."

Jack laughed, as the team gathered around to meet the doctor. Damon made two boyfriends that Gwen had walked in on him having sex with. "Hey, you know what he said. Damon's not a morning person."

Finally solid, the Tardis stood still for one moment before the door opened.

* * *

Mori struggled to hang on to Martha, the instant she got to her feet her knees buckled, her head swum and her eyes focused just on the floor beneath her feet. "I think I'm gonna pass out..." Mori mumbled as Martha guided her out of the Tardis.

She heard the Doctor calling to Jack to help him. "She's conscious but she's very weak. Martha said you guys had medical equipment she needed."

"What's happened to her?" A tall thin man reached out to help Martha guide Mori through a series of corridors. For the raven haired girl the world was swimming, up was down, down was up. Her body was rebelling against any effort she made to move it.

"A genetic transformation, its not harmful to others but we're not sure what it will do to her. We need medical scanners that I don't have. The infirmary all my equipment was in was demolished when the Dahleks stole Earth." Martha explained. "Owen, this is serious. She's transforming into a timelord. Somebody put a genetic trigger in her ancestry. When the doctor found her she'd been shot by a dahlek. It triggered the transformation to save her life but I'm not sure what's going to happen to her beyond the final result. She's very weak and disoriented right now. I'm amazed she's even conscious."

Voices around her, an American replying. "Doctor you don't do anything halfway."

"This wasn't /my/ idea. All I know is that when she got shot, her body healed itself. I saw the same glow as when I regenerate. Her physical appearance didn't change at all. Either that comes later or her insides are being completely rewired."

"I'll run a genetic analysis and a full biological and neurological scan. Doctor are human and timelord DNA compatible?"

Silence.

"Doctor." The thin man said urgently.

Jack spoke for him. "No Owen, they aren't. The Doctor lost a very good friend because the two species weren't. If our visitor is to survive, she has to be transformed entirely one way or the other, and she has to /stay/ that way."

Mori felt herself being set on a hospital bed, and she closed her eyes and lay there. She could feel monitors being attached. "can you hear me?" The voice she identified as coming from the thin man who'd helped Martha carry her. "Can you say something?"

"Mori..." The girl murmured. "Call me Mori. You're hurting my head. And if I had enough strength to move my arm I would bean you with the nearest bedpan." She mumbled, the sound of somebody clinging to consciousness. "Because your voice is spliting my skull in half and really I just want you to SHUT UP."

"I need you to stay with me a moment longer, can you describe for me what you're feeling, physically? It might give me a clue where to start."

"I'm burning..." Mori said, half asleep. "Its... painful and reassuring all at once. My head is swimming. I can actually hear my own heartbeat." She muttered disjointedly. Her breathing spasmed again, struggling to compensate. "Its... i can't even tell up from down..."

"Mori, nice name." Jack crouched near the girl's head. "Mori, you're going to be okay." Mori felt a gentle hand touch her arm briefly, reassuring. "Martha and Owen will take care of you. Just conserve your strength alright?" The hand tightened on her arm. "I'm Jack, I'm the leader of Torchwood. This is my base you're at. When you wake up, if you need anything, just ask one of my team, they'll do their best. For now, rest."

"Then shut up and let me sleep..." Mori murmured. "And git your hand off before I bite it."

"lovely attitude." a female voice commented.

"Sarcasm isn't helping Gwen."

"Leave Owen and Martha to work." The voice Mori identified as Jack withdrew from hearing, steering the others out of the room. "Doctor, you've got some expla..."

* * *

"youve got some explaining to do." Jack ushered the rest of the group out. "We have a new member coming in today. Good time to meet him but."

"You mean your little boyfriend?" Gwen asked innocently.

Toshiko giggled as Jack said sardonically. "I thought we covered this Gwen."

"Yes, we've covered that nekking in a closet is a fling." Gwen teased. "Maybe a better term than boyfriend is friends with benefits? He's pretty smitten with you idn't he? Really nobody else could keep up with you. If anything he's even more reckless than you are. Not to mention he's as loyal as static cling."

"Oh wonderful." Jack had Gwen, Ianto, /and/ Toshi giving him a 'look.' "I'd like to get your visitor settled before he arrives."

"I'm not even sure what happened myself." The Doctor explained, not really getting the joke between Jack and his teammates. "I went back to the battle where Rose was pulled into the alternate dimension. But I went to New York instead of London. I wasn't going to go out, I'm not even sure why I ended up there. Then I hear shouting and the sound of a sonic tool being used. When I looked out, Mori was actually attacking a trio of dahleks. She knocked over two of them, but when she fired the sonic tool at the third, at the same time it fired a death ray bullet, it broke through the sonic attack. The bullet hit her, and the feedback sent her flying. The Dahlek got careless, and went on its way. When I got to her, she glowed gold, the way I do when I regenerate. but it was... quieter, weaker. The gold dissolved in a mist it..." How does a Timelord explain the physical sensation of regeration to a human? "She started breathing again, but she was having trouble. When she died, got shot, I think it triggered the transformation. What she described, feels almost exactly like a slowed down version of my own regeneration."

Images of Donna's smiling face went through his mind. If anything they made what was happening to Mori even more tragic. "If I knew, something about how Mori..."

"Doctor." Jack broke the Doctor out of that line of thought. "There was /nothing/ you could have done to help her. Erasing her memory was the kindest possible thing and its the only thing keeping her alive. And nothing will change that."

"That's not fair Jack, you didn't give up on Owen." Gwen chided. "Why on this friend of Doctors?"

"Because I don't know any way that he could have prevented or stopped what was happening." Jack said stubbornly.

"We've got a basic assessment Doctor, Jack." Martha and Owen entered from the infirmary. "She's about 50 percent through the transformation to timelord. But I'd appreciate a sample of your DNA to compare. Martha already gave a sample of hers so we can compare a normal humans. But I need test samples from a human, a timelord, a close relative of Mori's, and another person with the same trigger that caused the... change in your friend Mori." Owen reported. "I want to isolate the trigger gene so we can identify this /before/ it happens."

"I..." The Doctor paused. "Its probably not a good idea."

"Owen, forget a DNA sample from him." Jack told the lean medic.

"I need it for completeness, so I can develop an accurate test fo..." Stern glare from Jack. "Fine. I'll forget it. What's /with/ you?"

"This is the Doctor we're talking about Owen. I'm not about to make him do something he doesn't want to do. He has a reason for doing anything he does, and he's private about his past. Not even Rose bothered him about it unless something from the Timewar, like the Dahleks, showed up to make trouble." Jack was saying this in the doctor's defense, in his hearing, and if he'd stopped there it would have been fine. But then the part that REALLY hurt. "Donna was the only one who /really/ got him to come out of his shell, in a way not even Martha was able to do. Then Donna nearly died saving all of us and to save her life he had to ERASE months of memory. And they weren't the kind of memories you'd want to have erased. And she nearly died because hybridization accidentally occured when Donna saved the Tardis from being destroyed, because of something so simple that was part of the tardis's systems that he didn't even think it would be a hazard. Human and timelord is one hybrid that ISNT compatible. As soon as the adrenaline wore off Donna's brain went berzerk. The change almost killed her. The Doctor doesn't give up samples of his DNA, because he doesn't want to leave a trace of him behind that a human could mess with. He doesn't want to leave a trace of his people behind that could be used against him or that could be used to cause someone else harm. Don't push him to do something if he says 'no.'"

The Doctor turned and walked back to the infirmary.

"See what your big mouth did?" Martha asked Jack sharply. "The sentiment is appreciated but you just rubbed salt into an open..."

"I"m heeeeeeeeeeerrreeeee!" A blur of black hair, brilliant green hairdye, greeny gold eyes, and huge grin almost tackled Jack Harkness against the nearest wall.

The new recruit had arrived, Damon's typical huge dopey grin breaking up a tense scene.

"OOF! Damon, damon down, off ack!" The rest of the Torchwood team started laughing.

Martha took several steps back, eyeing the newcomer warily in alarm. "Your... new teammember?" She asked warily.

"Yeah, he found us, or... found Jack, clung, and didn't let go since."

"I'm sorry I'm late!" An attractive man, suave black hair greased and dyed bright lurid green, greeny gold eyes like a cats, and a huge grin, Damon Leigh Warren was an energetic and excitable new recruit to the Torchwood team. A botany major at one of the local universities, on a fast track to early graduation with high honors, Damon was an exchange student from America with as many different colored hairsprays and scents of colone as days of the week. He met Jack shortly after the Dahleks Stole Earth, during the cleanup. The attraction on Damon's part was almost immediate.

Jack would have ignored him and gone on with cleanup. "WAIT!" and something that automatically caught his attention. "Three years ago those things killed my mother and sister. I WANT to know what they are!"

Uhhuuuuuh, and then Damon wouldn't let go, and about two months later Damon's knowledge of botany saved the team and solved a case involving an invasive, poisonous plant that had an appitite for people into the bargain. Another case Damon had been captured, using the symbolism associated with plants to leave a message for the team. Damon had left a message by dropping local foliage with specific meanings that they were able to piece together to find the badguys and save the "little hairsprayed clingbug." Damon begged and begged and begged to be allowed to join the team, and about a week ago Jack relented.

Of course, about a month ago Gwen had caught Damon and Jack in a supply closet, in a compromising position involving kissing, groping and when she walked in Jack's hand was reaching for Damon's belt. The black haired woman's screech of surprise at what she walked in on was heard as far away as the laboratory Owen was doing research in. Damon's hyperactive and ebullient spirits and clingy overproteciveness where Jack was concerned was a running joke among the team, though they DID encourage the partnership between the two.

And sometimes Damon was just plain funny. "I'm so sorry I was late! The traffic was bumper bumper! And the coffee pot..."

"you broke it again." Toshiko finished.

"It doesn't like me! Every other appliance in the house likes me, the coffee pot doesn't!" Damon gave his usual excuse. Of course, Damon was also trying to convince Jack to move in with him. The leader had explained that he was romantically interested, but had issues with commitment. That was already obvious to the botanist, who had repeatedly told him that he didn't care about commitment.

"Damon, we have visitors." Jack was trying very hard to keep a straight face. "This is Martha. I told you about her."

"Martha Jones, voice of a nighting gale! Of course I remember!" Damon said charmingly. "You saved Owen's pretty neck when Jack brought him back from the dead."

"I have /never/ been described as pretty." Owen's face twitched. Damon hadn't just hit on Jack, he'd once made several passes at Owen, who obviously was more interested in women than in Damon. The American had finally gotten the message and stuck to complements aimed at showing his appreciation of the lean, rangy looking medic. Whatever the circumstances, Damon had hit on all three male members of the team at least once.

But while he did so, they had learned a bit about Damon's personality, something that put off most people. Damon acted ditsy, girly, effeminate, and clingy. It was, for the main part, an act. His IQ was extremely high, the 99th percentile. He had a sensitive side, sometimes oversensitive and so far, even though the other four knew about it, Damon had only shown Jack the diary he kept. "Dear Morgan," a letter to a sister believed dead for three years. Laughter was Damon's way of grieving, eccentricity his coping mechanism. He clung, because he wanted to cling to someone warm and calming and protective to make up for the loss of his mother and sister. The effeminate side was heart felt and genuine. He really did write poetry to his dead sister, he really made flower arrangements for his apartment. Damon really did knit, and sew, and cook with the same manners that a housewife might.But underneath that laughing mask there was a crying jester begging for comfort and struggling to make some sense of his world and his past.

"So this Doctor of yours showed up Jack?" Damon asked, curiously. "What'd he come for? I thought he only showed up if something bad was happening?"

"No, not always. He doesn't have an infirmary and Martha's got wrecked. He found a girl injured on his travels. She needed an infirmary. And I think Owen just drove Doctor back to it." Jack eyed Owen through gritted teeth. "By insisting on obtaining a DNA sample."

"How was I supposed to know?" Demanded Owen. "I knew humans sometimes didn't like it, but how was I supposed to know timelords didn't either?"

"easy Owen," Martha sighed. "Come on, he's probably keeping watch over the girl he rescued. I"ll introduce you." Martha motioned for Damon to follow. "so what do you do around Torchwood?" She asked him. "Whats your specialty?"

"I'm a botany major at one of the local colleges. I'm nearly 23 but I'm almost finished with my degree already." Damon said cheerfully. "I graduate this January."

"congratulations." Martha said with a smile. "A colorful man like you will make a great addition to the team." Martha said with a laugh.

"Why thank you. I do my best to have a sense of humor." Damon said with a smile. "Why cry when you can laugh? At least laughing makes you feel better." The botanist said with a smile.

"here's the infirmary. doctor are you in here?" martha called the otherwise empty room.

"I'm here." The doctor said quietly. "Did Jack's new man come in yet?"

"yeah, I wanted to introduce you. Doctor, Damon Leigh Warren. Damon? Doctor, doctor..." as the Doctor turned and reached out his hand to shake Damon's the botanist caught sight of a familiar raven haired form laid out on the medical bed. "MORI!!" He wailed, the shout carrying down the hall to Jack.

Five Torchwood members, one Jack harkness at the fore, bolted in to find the normally happy Botanist clinging to the bed's occupant and sobbing. "Mori mori mori mori!!" He wailed. "Wake up! Mori get up!" Damon sobbed.

"You two know each other?" Martha asked, but the Doctor had a look of realization on his face. Mori had briefly mentioned a brother.

"Her name is Mori, my sister!"

* * *

The doctor was and wasn't happy with this turn of events. His curiousity had been piqued by Mori's transformation and the appearance of her older brother at Torchwood. He was, however, not happy with what his fellow timelords had done. Admittedly it did save his people. Even if there was no Galifrey there were still Timelords. But he still felt somewhat like they were using the humans. He also had the memory of Donna still fresh in his mind.

He also remembered Jenny insisting that she also was a timelord. Genetically, yes, Jenny was, and Mori would be. But the Doctor had said and would repeat. Being a timelord was a spiritual thing as well. Shared experience. Shared suffering. They had the body but would need at least a century of teaching. Nothing good could come from this. Maybe he was thinking negatively, but doctor didn't predict an easy transition for Mori, and the appearance of her older brother was going to complicate the whole affair.

He really missed Donna. She knew how to beat some sense into his head. She'd have been a big help here. Maybe, maybe something could eventually be done to fix her, so that she could at least remember him.

"Her name is Mori, my Sister!"

"Damon, aaaah, before she passed out Mori told me to look for you." Martha said awkwardly. "Owen and I sedated her, she'll be asleep until around dinner."

"Then I'll stay here until she does!" Snapped Damon. "She's been missing for 3 years! Everyone thinks she's dead!"

"Aaah, well that's the thing, she needed special care, and at that time I didn't know anyone I could take her to." The Doctor explained. "But I knew martha, and I knew torchwood. The only way I could get her the help she needed was to take her here. To /this/ time."

"What's wrong with her? A bullet from a dahlek?" Damon demanded. "She doesn't look shot!"

"Its... its a long story Damon." Martha edged away from him, and the Doctor's eyes never left the botanist's face. "She was shot, but there something genetic under that, it was triggered when she was hit. It saved her life but..."

"STOP beating around the bush and tell me what's WRONG!" Damon's face had gone from happy, to anxious, to pissed off very quickly.

Jack grabbed Damon's shoulder. "Damon calm down. and sit down."

Damon was still wound tight, "What. Happened?" He ground his teeth.

"Short version, she's turning into a Timelord." Martha was saved having to answer by Jack. Harkness was leaning on Damon's shoulder, kneeding the tense muscles with one hand.

"WHAT THE HELL?" Damon looked ready to punch both martha and doctor. He got as far as standing out of his chair before Jack hauled him back into a sitting position.

"Don't start shrieking until they've FINISHED." Every ounce of confidence and charm Jack possessed went into breaking through Damon's emotional wounds and getting him to listen to common sense.

"What we /have/ been able to find out," that was martha. "was that the gene was passed down in your family for centuries without your knowing it. When Mori got shot by that dahlek it triggered the genetic transformation to save her life."

"Can't you reverse it? Can't you stop it?" Damon demanded. "There must be something."

"Damon, if you halt the transformation she will die." Martha told him urgently trying to keep the American from going hysterical. "Owen and I did a thorough scan. Timelord and human DNA aren't genetically compatible. She will die if even a shred of human DNA is left in her."

Martha really did feel sorry for Damon. He lost his mother. He thought his sister was dead. His sister reappears, but isn't human anymore. And if she was transforming what did that mean for him? Would Damon eventually make the same transition? Would he eventually become a timelord like his sister?

"What does that mean, for Mori, for me... what's going to happen to us?" Damon asked pathetically.

"I don't know," The Doctor was silent, and Martha noticed he was looking from Mori, to her brother, and back. "There has never been a hybrid between humans and timelords before. We don't even know what the genetic trigger was." Silently Martha urged the doctor to say something.

"I'm not particularly happy about this." Doctor said at last, walking over to Damon. "She'll be alright, but Martha's correct, if the transformation isn't completed she will die." He looked the boy in the eyes. "What's happening to her is not bad. I understand your distress, but there's no need for you to be frightened. And when she finally wakes up, she'll need a lot of teaching to get her comfortable in her new body. She's going to need you to accept this, because if you think of her as a freak, or with pity, or with disgust or fear, then she will start to think that there's something wrong with her. And that isn't true at all. You are her older brother, and to a certain extent you are responsible for her. SHOW her that there is nothing wrong. Come to grips with this in your own way, but remember that she will be watching what you're doing and saying. She'll think she's a freak or a woman born anew and which one depends on how you look at her when she wakes up." Those who knew him could tell that the Doctor was not in a good mood.

Damon fell silent, glaring at the Timelord. "And you would expect me to just accept this? She's going to be traumatized, pissed and angst ridden in turns, probably all at once. The only reason why she hasn't started screaming is because she's too weak and tired to raise a protest or even process what's going on around her!"

"SHUT UP." Martha hissed, the Doctor wasn't moving, but his glare could have withered anything it fell upon. Damon looked ready to swing fists. "Both of you this isn't the time to be fighting. COOL IT."

Damon turned on his heal and strode away. "Keep away from my sister. _Witchdoctor_." He snapped. "Or I'll raise hell. And if you ask Jack, he knows I'm capable of doing it."

Speak of the Devil, Jack's blood was slowly starting to boil, and as he left the room he hauled Damon away from the infirmary and into a broom closet, and it WASNT to make out. "What the HELL are you doing??" He spat.

"She never came BACK Jack! She's alive here, she never came BACK. Something happened between here and there!"

"Like what? What? You're NOT going to treat the Doctor like that! Turn around and apologize. Its not your fault, its not his fault, its not Mori's fault. Its the culmination of things /he/ never knew about, and things that YOU had no control over." Jack all but hauled Damon around on his feet and dragged him back into the infirmary. "Damon wants to apologize, he's rather out of sorts if he doesn't have his morning coffee."

"Sorry."

_My hands are going to be full with this pair._ The Doctor thought, "Accepted, I suggest you get that coffee then."

* * *

Mori dreamed, the day that she and Damon were seperated. "I hate you Damon! Why can't I wear it??"

"A civilized teenage girl doesn't wear hairdye." Damon's appearance back then, neatly groomed, cleancut, hairdye free. No piercings, no jewelery. Black slacks, black boots, blue belt, white t-shirt. "you'll have all the wrong sort of friends knocking on your door if you do dye your hair. Besides... green?"

"They say its the in color this year." Mori wanted to scream in frustration.

"You'll thank me later, green hair, honestly." Damon shook his head, holding the can of colored hairspray out of her reach. "Besides, it gets all over your thumbs and your clothes, its such a mess!"

"I HATE YOU DAMON!! DROP DEAD AND GIVE ME MY HAIRSPRAY!!" Mori sputtered, throwing a pencil case at the door as it closed behind her. "Now I'll look like a total dork. Thanks a lot. Plain old Morgi the Borgi that's me, none of the cool girls will talk to me now. I'm just plain geeky little Morgi." She grumbled. "Sucks. Now everybody will see my eyes, everybody will stare and make fun of me." She stared out the window at the pouring rain. _Mori the freak with the golden eyes. Nothing about me is right, my eyes get me picked on, even by the teachers. They tell me to take out the colored contacts, they're against the school dresscode. And then I always have to tell them that these are my normal eyes. I'm not wearing anything... and then the girls talk, and the boys look at me like I'm creepy. And nobody likes me, because the way I look at the world is the wrong color._

The busride to school, not the school bus, never the school bus. It was the funniest thing, the school buses were so cramped, so tiny that she always felt trapped. But if anything, the buses through New York were fuller and thicker and even more cramped. But she loved nothing better to hang onto the pole in the lurching vehicle and look outside at the rain and the cold and those infernal ghosts that had been wandering around.

That day didn't even feel like anything special, classes and rain and wads of paper chucked at the back of her head and the teacher asking questions she didn't know the answers to and the cool girls giggling behind her back when her hair poofed out from the humidity.

Cutie little Mori, doooorky little Morgi, the class geek, the one girl picked on most because after all normal people didn't have golden eyes. They weren't even contact lenses, they were REALLY gold. It was freaky that's what!

Then the anonymity of the busride home, ennervated and exhausted and upset. "Maybe if I had hairdye, they wouldn't notice that my eyes are the wrong shade."

Almost home, almost safe home so that she could rest. She'd /just/ closed the door to the apartment when the world blew up.

Cybermen marched the streets, Dahleks swarmed over the sky. Mori was safe, Mori was trapped but safe, but what about mom? What about Damon? They were still out there!

She'd told Damon to drop dead, she didn't mean it! _**I didn't mean it Damon! I swear I didn't mean it! I'll come for you... I'll come get you... I'll show you I didn't mean it! I didn't really want you to drop dead...**_ Her mouth formed the words, no voice coming out as she wept. Tears flowing from the corners of her eyes. "I didn't mean it... brother I didn't mean it..." laughing, screaming, jearing in her ears. "... I just wanted to hide them..."

She had to find her brother! She had to find her mother! And something was calling her. Something she couldn't explain, pulse pounding in her ears Mori ran for her mother's bedroom. There was a carving, of a dragon and phoenix entwined and carved from oak and rowan wood that hid the safe that her mother thought she didn't know the combination to. _The dragon stands for courage, valor, honor, the need to defend and the will to protect. The phoenix means eternity. It means rebirth and sacrifice and love and forgiveness. It is the bird that is born again after literally setting itself on fire. And together they form the essence of human nature and ingenuity._ She found the small laquer box and the tiny tool inside it. "Its a... pen? No wait!" She pushed a button, hearing the buzz it gave off. "Soundwaves! Cool! Oooooh, but how do I use this?"

Pelting down the stairs. "Damon I'm coming for you!! Don't worry! I'll protect you!"

The Cybermen didn't like the noise it gave off, it looked like the tool stunned them. And the bucket heads DIDNT like the noise at all. As Mori pelted down the streets of new york towards the college that her brother went to, to try and find him and tell him she was sorry. She didn't mean it... Mori found ALL kinds of things that that little sonic pen worked on, reflexes allowing her to fight on sheer adrenaline until she finally ran out of strength and momentum. The Dahlek moved first, was faster, was stronger. Broken... Mori felt her body shudder, shake... _**Brother... i'm sorry... I didn't mean it... I didn't mean to tell you to die...**_ The world faded into blackness, and then fire engulfed her body and the world was bathed in golden radience. It tore through her, but it was warm... comforting. Something whirled before her eyes, a flame engulfed bird, a vividly blue dragon, each parting company and screaming.

They say you see funny things before you die...

Babump, babump... \\**The bird that sets itself on fire... and returns to life again anew...**\\ babump... babump... \\**Dancing with the dragon, valor, courage, honor...**\\ Babump... \\**Phoenix...**\\ Babump... \\**Dragon.**\\ babump... \\**I am the dragon and phoenix, in one body, in one existance, I never belonged, because I...**\\

* * *

While everybody else found something to eat for lunch, Damon just stood there, looking over the railing down into the center of the control room. The Doctor was across the walkway, watching him. "She always hated school." Damon said quietly. "She got made fun of all the time... they called her Morgi the Borgi. After that stupid sci fi show. They thought she was cool they always did. Then the teacher would say 'take out your contact lenses, colored lenses are against school dresscode.'"

The Doctor looked up, listening.

"And they turned on her, they ate her alive. She wanted so badly to fit in, but the girls would talk, and the boys would treat her like she had some kind of disease, like she was some kind of leper."

He watched Damon quietly.

"She hated her eyes, she hated her own skin. She kept trying to show off, a different way every day. Piercings, henna tattoos, hairbleach, hair dye. Wild clothes and fishnets and doggy collars. Anything to make people think she was cool, that she was normal. I was stupid, pigheaded, I kept taking them away and mom kept telling her to stand on her own two feet, show her true face with pride in her own body. I wanted her to understand that there was nothing wrong with how she looked, she shouldn't EVER have to change HERSELF to make other people happy. She didn't get it, she was just miserable."

"She felt like an alien in her own skin..."

"yeah, she'd do anything to try and blend in with the crowd and disappear. She always felt she had to be just like the other kids at school. I wanted to scream at her that she didn't have to do anything. She was just FINE. I hated seeing her constantly trying to hide. I never said anything, just simple things like 'you'll get people staring at you' or 'you'll attract the wrong kind of company' and telling her to stand plain in front of everybody. She never got it, or cared, I don't think. And then one day... THAT day, I took away her colored hairspray. Green, the same color and brand I'm wearing now."

"Bet she didn't like that..."

"She told me to drop dead and give it back. I ran off with the bottle. I guess she..." He looked up. "That last thing I heard was her angry at me. Then she was gone. And mom... I guess anything she truely wanted to hide she hid in a safe in her room. It was hidden behind a carving mom had in her family for ages, a dragon and phoenix fighting each other. Mom had it on her wall to hide the safe."

Silence, as Damon refused to look the Doctor in the eye.

"The safe was hanging open, the tiny box hastily opened and left on the bed and whatever was in it gone. There was a CD running in the cd player and a pot of coffee waiting for me and that incense she liked so much, dragons blood, wafting the scent out of the censor. And she was gone. I never saw her again. They said she was dead but... for a long time I wasn't sure. I knew she was out there, somewhere. I never believed in that bonds of blood crap. But she'd left coffee hot for me, the incense was there and the music the whole scene sounded like an apology. An "i love you, I'm sorry I need to go." She wouldn't have done that if she wasn't going to come back. But a week turned into a month, a month into a year, and I knew she wasn't there anymore. The only things I brought with me when I transferred to the college here in Cardiff, were the box left on the bed, and the carving on the safe door."

"That's why you started spraying your hair, you wanted to say you were sorry."

"No, I was remembering. By then I really thought she was dead." Damon said quietly. "I thought, maybe whatever powers that be would forgive me for not talking to her. For not comforting her. For teasing her and not listening or caring to what she wanted, if I wore that color for her." He sighed. "I turned to Torchwood for answers, I stayed because it gave me comfort. I was a warrior. There's a difference between a soldier and a warrior doctor."

Their eyes connected. "Yeah, what's that?"

"A soldier does as he's told, he has no freedom, he has no free will. He fights because that's everything he's always known and anything else would just tear him apart because it doesn't make sense, it doesn't compute. But a warrior has a choice, she has freedom. She fights because she wants to defend something, because she believes in what she does. She stands for protection, she has people counting on her to be strong. She is their shield, she is their sword. She gives the defenseless a voice..."

_Interesting that he aligns himself with the soldier, and his sister with a warrior._ "A warrior still has the choice not to fight." The doctor said cooly. He was about to say more, but something went off on one of the computers down below.

Martha hurried out from one of the laboratories. "Doctor, Damon, that means that Mori has finished the transformation. We should hur..."

There was a yell from the infirmary. It was almost earsplitting, and the emotion that went into it... Anger, anguish, shock, terror all rolled into one sharp peal of sound. "MORI!" Damon completely forgot any thought of philosophy.

Sensing trouble, Jack ran from one of the storerooms and followed Damon to the infirmary. "Damon wait! Go easy on her she'll just have woken up..."

Damon stopped in the doorway. Mori was stirring on the medical bed, struggling to sit up. She shook her head, trying to clear it. Then she reached a seated position and leaned over, putting her face in her hands, slowly taking stock of her. "Mori..."

The doctor shot out a hand at the doorframe. "Shush a moment! Let her speak first!"

"But..."

* * *

Mori was completely confused. The world was swimming, everything seemed... sharper. That was the first thing she noticed. And then there was the sheer overload of mental strength. She could definately tell, she 'felt' smarter. Just to test it, she closed her eyes, focusing on an algebra problem from school that had driven her crazy, about 48 hours before. Not only could she remember it crystal clear, but she could solve it quickly.

Math had never been her academic strength, language, science, art, and yes, history. But Math? She'd been straight F's almost all her life. And then... she tried something else, think think think, oh yeah. That difficult passage she'd busted her brain over in Latin class earlier in the year. It had taken her 3 hours to translate with just the textbook and dictionary. But if she thought hard, she couldn't just recite it, she could speak it.

**"Right now her senses are on overload. Her brainpower has increased about tenfold, and she still has to sort out the physical sensation caused by the change. Trust me, you don't want to say anything until she does."**

Not just Latin, she'd taken french and spanish so far too. It just... came... easier, than it had. Slowly, Mori massaged her head with her index fingers. Her body, it was... different.

The change in intellect, in her ability to think, had reached her first because it was strongest. The change in body was more subtle. She removed one hand away from her face and made a fist... that wasn't quite it... but her muscles did feel a little different. Mori held very, very still. She took deep breaths, mind carefully moving over her body bit by bit until. Her hand stopped over the left side of her chest and froze... one... that should be there... but there was...

_babump, babump._

there were two... two pulses, two hearts... Mori started to shake, visibly.

She heard somebody argueing at the edge of the doorframe. **"No, Jack let me through... damnit I have to get to her... she's my SISTER... let me THROUGH!!"**

Damon! Damon! Mori started to tremble harder. "Don't... damon don't..." She said exhaustedly.

"MORI!!" Damon was starting to panic. Mori turned to face him. "Moriiiii!" Jack finally let Damon go and moved closer to the Doctor and Martha to watch the siblings.

Mori found herself swept up in Damon's grip. "Damon!" Mori whimpered, leaning against him. "I was so scared. I thought I was going to lose you! I ran out to find you and..."

"I came back as fast as I could! You weren't there... nobody could find you!"

"I didn't mean it... I didn't mean what I said... I didn't really want you to drop dead! I'm sorry..."

"This probably isn't going to go too well." Jack observed quietly. "Damon's been wound way too tight all day. Most of what got him this far is because... he thought he'd lost her. And he felt guilty about what he could have done, and didn't."

"She's not going to be in much better shape..." Martha shook her head. "You could see it in her body language. She was completely shaken, broken."

"Its not over yet." The Doctor told Martha. "Damon will just be a distraction, that's why I wanted him to keep back." The Doctor watched both siblings carefully. "The transition will be more than just the physical transformation."

"You think she'll be able to cope... with..." Jack hesitated.

"She'll have to..."

Mori was just barely registering the conversation beyond the two of them. "You... the... I mean..." Damon sputtered. "You were gone, for three years. Everybody thought you were dead. And then... the Doctor said you were going to..."

"Don't dance around it, Damon just..." Mori said quietly. "I can tell that I'm different, and I remember... bits and snatches of the conversation while I was half conscious I..." she reached up and whispered sadly, in Latin. /**"/Aeneas was robbed of home and land, sailing for ages in search of Rome, a purpose, one purpose left to him after the destruction of Troy. Not returning to his people, making instead his own way, in doing so a legend was born and a new world began./"/** She murmured numbly.

"You're not Aeneas dumbhead." Damon chuckled. "I barely understood even half of that..."

Mori laughed quietly. "you should have taken the class when you had the chance." She was crying, a grin on her face and she was crying.

"You took hours to even compose one paragraph when you took it. How could you speak something that poetic that quickly?" Damon demanded, a little taken aback.

"Because she's a timelord now Damon." The Doctor told him, and Mori regarded him blankly. "Even though she would have had difficulty with foreign language as a human, she'd be able to speak any language she's learned before now quickly and fluently." And he could already see the gears working in Mori's head, from the look on her face.

Still clinging to her brother, Mori studied the Doctor carefully. "I remember, you're the one who pulled me out of the battlefield." She said quietly. "I could... feel and hear, what was going on for some of it. I..." She hesitated. "I could tell that I'd moved in time, even unconscious I could tell I'd been pulled. I... thanks." She said quietly.

"No problem." He said with a small smile. "you'll have a lot to learn, but you'll get the hang of it."

Mori chuckled. "I'd better. Feels like my head is gonna explode." There was a lazy, sleepy looking grin on her face. Then suddenly that gaze sharpened. "Damon... do you... feel any different?"

"Huh? No... and don't think that hasn't occured to me either." Damon said quietly. "It was horrible... for months you weren't there, I knew you weren't... logically. But in my mind, instinctively, subconsciously, some part of me kept thinking that you were still home. I kept thinking you were going to come running in the door again... any minute... I couldn't explain it... so I just forgot it. I just gave up, because I knew it couldn't be true."

"That's another thing..." The Doctor chuckled. "Timelords can sense each other... you may not have been fully transformed, but she's your own blood. You would have been able to sense her for at least half the time between then and now. But a lot of humans, if they can't consciously confirm that something is true, tend to forget it, to ignore it."

"Aeneas is accurate too... isn't it?" Mori asked, still clinging to Damon. She couldn't move from that spot, not now. She needed to sit for a bit longer. "There's only one reason, just one, to make a human who can change. You're the only one, well... we... if there were a whole bunch of timelords out there I'd be able to feel it, wouldn't I? But I can't. If you and I are the only ones, the only logical reason to make a human who can change into a timelord is to return the species to life."

"Yeah, you're right, well... almost. There's one... but he's evil. Always trying to destroy everything. So technically, yeah, the both of us are the only ones." The Doctor confirmed.

"And there could be one human who could, or there could be hundreds. There's no way of knowing." Mori said quietly. "Technically, Aeneas is an accurate metaphor." Her mouth turned in a cruel twist. "Tell me a story, Doctor, tell me about the history of... your people. I don't think I'll be up to full strength for awhile, give me something to think on."

The Doctor looked up, Martha and Jack were still in the room. Damon was still seated on the medical bed next to Mori. "Martha, Jack, go tell everyone else that we're alright in here."

"I want to hear too though." Martha spoke up. "You never talk about the timewar, or your people, or anything about where you came from." She sounded disappointed that she wouldn't get to hear it.

"It is a story... best kept between timelords. Sarah Jane knows some of it, you want details ask her."

"Come on Martha." Jack looked back over his shoulder and mouthed to Damon. 'temper' before he guided Martha out of the room.

Mori caught it and chuckled, in Latin again in Damon's ear, and he could understand this time. **/"/Mind your manners brother./"/ **She whispered. **/"/You might anger the Son of Time into silence. And then we'll never know what cataclysm spawned Aeneas./"/**


	2. Dance

Notes: oh man, this scene was so hard to write. I agonized over it. I'm so used to writing with anime in mind that its difficult to think with "real life" in mind. And this didn't help. I found it on my last fanart raid... atomicfireball./art/The-Doctor-And-The-Captain-59709094

Thank you atomic fireball. oooooh, but the Doctor looks so cute animated!

* * *

Ark -- 2

"It wasn't your fault." It was late, Jack and the Doctor were the only ones awake. The Torchwood team had long since gone home for a good night's sleep. Jack, on the other hand, didn't need very much in the way of sleep, and even if he did, he was too wired.

Finding out what happened to Mori had been Damon's reason for joining the team. Damon was sound asleep, curled up in a chair next to his sister's bedside. He'd work things out with Damon later, Damon's issues tended to be a timebomb. He'd simmer and simmer and simmer and get upset days after the fact. That gave Jack some amount of time to deal with Damon.

It was the Doctor that most captured Jack's concern. The doctor was seated on the couch in his office, and Jack slipped next to him on the couch with a sigh. "If you're about to hit on me again you're wasting your breath." Doctor said coolly. "How many tries does this make?" A sappy slow song was playing on the CD player. One of Toshiko's CD's, the label in her handwriting, "Gravity, Y.K. DoA F.M." (1)

"I heard about Donna." The instant groan from the other man told Jack he'd hit the right button.

"How?" That was bitter.

"Beer helps." Jack offered him a drink. The Doctor took it suspiciously. Alcohol would help Jack /later/. The timelord hadn't been entirely wrong. Jack was hoping to get Doctor by the end of the night. But this was more important. "Great minds think alike. So do the minds of those traumatized in battle. Sarah Jane decided to take Luke to the seaside after the battle. She ran into Donna on the seashore, who had gone to visit with her mother and grandfather. Sarah Jane thought there was something wrong when Donna didn't recognize her. Fortunately Donna's grandfather is more vigilant than her mother is. He caught up with Sarah Jane and explained the whole thing, Donna's memories had been surpressed, and if she remembered she would die, and the Doctor had left looking very depressed about the whole affair. She knows you better than any of us, and with age came wisdom that Martha or Rose don't have. She said, 'when the doctor comes again, he won't be in a good mood, he'll likely be depressed and out of sorts. Please try to get his spirits back up. What happened up there will tear him to pieces.'"

"So you're here to shrink me, nice try." Doctor said quietly, a wry smile on his lips.

Jack did something that a long time ago he never would have dared do. He wrapped his arms around the Doctor and whispered quietly in his ear. "You push everyone away, we try to reach out to you, every one of us. But you won't have any of it. You're willing to teach us, you're willing to save us. But we reach out to you the way we would someone we meet, anyone we would get to know, and it doesn't work. There's a magic barrier between us and you. And you won't bring it down. Now its the kind of thing that Legends are made of, but what about Doctor the man, not Doctor the legend, Doctor the man? What does he get out of being a Legend? He gets nothing. NOTHING." Jack whispered fervently. His grip became tender, though he didn't dare make a move yet. "What kind of existance is that? You know people, but you won't KNOW them. What are you afraid of...?"

"I..."

"Okay, there's the difference in ages, that's a polite thing, that's a gentlemanly thing. And the barrier of lightyears and centuries that probably span eternity for you. That's a good thing but it still gets you nowhere. You FOUND Earth? Why? Everybody says you come when we need you. Did you ever think that its the other way around? You NEED someone, and that need is so great that it guides your hand, and in turn the Tardis, to the people who will care about you and love you and take that barrier away like the sun breaking away the rain. Or perhaps you're holding back because you know that you'll still stay young, and each of us will eventually age and die?"

"For starters..."

"Okay, think about who you're sharing a couch with?" Jack smirked. "I'm not as old as you are, but I'm in the same boat..." He paused. "yeah, think about that. And as you know full well I know no shame." He chuckled. "How can I become attached to Ianto, who will grow old while I stay young, dissolving into ashes and sand and dust? Damon is a moot point given what we found out about him and Mori. Its because I let myself get close to them. I let myself open to getting hurt, because if you don't leave yourself open to hurt, you can't grow. If you don't leave yourself open to hurt, you are going to spend the rest of eternity alone. Instead of worrying about pain... ooooh, i know plenty of pain, I can't die remember? I'm reborn over and over and over. Kind of like Regenerating isn't it? Instead of worrying about being hurt... celebrate. Celebrate life. Celebrate the lives of those you care about. And when Ashes have gone to Ashes, Dust to Dust, Celebrate their memory! I have EVERY imporant battle to me, I have them marked on the calender so that I remember who they were and..."

"BUT YOU'RE YOU!" The Doctor shoved Jack away. "You're bubbling over with energy, you can't help connecting with people. You THRIVE on 'emotionally connecting' with people." Jack could tell he'd started to get through though. The Doctor had taken a long swig on his beer. "I'm not LIKE that!"

"No, you're intelligent and empathetic and if anything oversensitive. The constant losses have you moody and depressed and too scared of the aftermath to DEAL with getting hurt. You distance yourself from the rest of us because you're convinced that the instant you get close to somebody you're going to get hurt or they're going to get hurt. And then where will you be?" Jack got close again, planting his hands on the doctor's shoulders and starting to massage the tension building in them. Jack had all but memorized the kama sutra in all the spare time he'd had on his hands after the Doctor had left the first time. He knew exactly what parts of the body to rub, what muscle to kneed to relax a man.

Jack's plan was simple, yeah, 'shrink' the doctor, as the timelord had put it, but he truely felt that the other needed some kind of sexual relief. What the Doctor needed was some way to cleanse centuries of emotional stress from his head. When he was certain that he'd said his peace to the Timelord, that the other was going to LISTEN to what he was saying here and was sure that the other was fully willing he would make his move. But it was the psychological relief he needed most.

"If you don't learn to connect with people, even ONE person, you are going to be hurt over and over again. Do you understand that?" The Doctor responded with a sarcastic snort. "You know you're a smart timelord but a rotten people person."

"Oh really, well you're a dumb captain and an overenthusiastic 'people person.'" Doctor retorted, gulping on the beer again. Once again, Jack was juuuust where he wanted to be, pressed against the Doctor's back, massaging arms and shoulders and rubbing the tension out of them. "I admit that you will likely live a VERY long time, I'm almost a millenia old." But he wasn't flinching or inching away. "I've been through more..."

"And have more baggage yeah whatever." Jack smirked. "You're going to need a better excuse than that. When it gets right down to it, you're just too scared of being hurt to let anyone get near you." Silence. He'd hit it on the noggin. "You can face down the end of the world but you can't let anyone near you. That's kind of pathetic don't you think." More silence, a gulp on the beer, which was, by now, half gone. "Just once... just once trust someone..." Jack pleaded, wrapping the other in his arms for the second time.

There was the faintest, faintest infinitesimal blush building in the Doctor's cheeks. So Jack rested his head on the other's shoulder, leaning against his cheek affectionately. Hands moved to cover his, and for the barest moment, Jack thought the Timelord was going to shove him away. But they just stayed there. "I know what you want... I shouldn't."

"I know..." Jack said quietly. "... do you need it?"

There was silence, but then right when Jack thought he was going to be flat out rejected and shoved away and 'oh that's a low blow how dare you?'

Then the other turned around, and Jack's efforts were rewarded with a pained smile. Jack met that smile with a comforting, sympathetic look. And then he was pulled into a shy, shy kiss. Jack felt his body flush, and suddenly they were tumbling into a pile on the couch. Clothes couldn't be shed fast enough and the two tussled for position and Jack seriously hoped Gwen wouldn't walk in this time.

How he ended up on the bottom, Jack never could figure out. But they were too busy with their hands and lips and... "You sure about this?" Jack whispered with a devilish grin.

"Have you ever asked that before? Really." Doctor rested his forehead against Jack's, "Or do I somehow turn you into a blushing schoolboy?"

"The drawer, the drawer." Blushing, Harkness shot out a hand to try and reach the drawer under the coffee table where he kept lube juuust in case. He managed to get the drawer open, the Doctor beating him to it.

"That's where you keep it? Oh that is just... you're such a playboy." Yeah, a drawer full of condoms and lube under the coffee table was just a little too much. But between Damon and Ianto he had to keep them somewhere right?

"Less talking, more kissing." Jack husked, hauling the timelord around for another kiss. "You are... mmm..." He left it at that, closing his eyes, relaxing his body for the other.

"You are demanding..." Doctor murmured in his ear, Jack felt a finger slowly make its way in. "Tell anyone else about this and I swear I'll..."

"you'll what?" Jack smirked, breath hitching as a second finger joined the first. "Besides, nobody would believe me would they?" He snickered. "you're such a prude."

"A /what?/" Doctor smirked, finding the other's prostate and jabbing.

Jack howled. "I take it back... mmm... do that again." He begged.

"I don't think so..." Jack whimpered as the hand pulled away. He was about to protest when the Timelord sealed his lips with a kiss. At the same time, Doctor entered him with one swift stroke.

There was a squeal from the Torchwood captain, clinging to the other's shoulders. "mmm... mmmm... that is... lovely." He groaned.

The two paused, Jack resting his head on the Doctor's shoulder. The timelord's arms wrapped around him. And then movement. The first thrust was tentative, testing the waters. Jack's breath hitched. Then again, and again. The two began a slow rhytmn. In, out, breath as one. It was primal and powerful and beautiful, and then... Jack yowled, it shot right through him, pleasure in its purest form. "You are... beautiful... elegant..."

"As are you..." His hands tightened on Jack's arms. The two of them arching against each other in pleasure. The world seemed to slow around everything else.

"nnng so..." Jack came first, screaming his lover's name in the night and slumping against Doctor. The timelord came a moment later, the two of them panting and gasping against each other. "Heh... you were right, I do turn into a blushing schoolboy around you." Jack's lip curled in a warm smile. "I've waited and wanted so long..."

"You got your wish..." The Doctor said quietly as he pulled away. "We should get cleaned up..."

* * *

Outside, a mischievious smile curled Martha's lips. "Silly Jack... he needed it though... good work." The former companion hurried off into the darkness and peered into the infirmary to check on Damon and Mori. "Sleeping." She yawned. "I should get to bed too..."

Damon's eyes moved beneath his closed lids, the botanist remembering in his dreams a time long ago when...

* * *

1. Gravity by Yoko Kanno, one of the most memorable anime slow songs of all time. I thought it fit the Doctor pretty well. Lyrics here... www(dot)animelyrics(dot)com/anime/wolfsrain/gravity(dot)htm

and the other is "Fukai Mori" by "Do as Infinity" which is a good Dr. Who slow song in general. This is the english version. www(dot)imeem(dot)com/mizakiishimaru/music/l3vzq3t6/doasinfinityfukaimorienglish/


	3. Gather

Ooooh my, next chapter. I apologize I've been sitting on this one for awhile. I'm going through my USB drive hunting down finished but unpublished chapters. I have this one and I'm almost finished with the one after it.

Hmmm, only a couple of chapters of Mori at Torchwood before she and Doctor go bug Sarah Jane, then its off into the unknown!!

* * *

_Dreams, they're said to be your mind looking back on the past, digesting it, processing it, or maybe just refreshing your memory. Or perhaps they're something completely different, or maybe just the mind's way of showing you what's important? Dreams are dreams, and they're important because they're important._

_This was a dream Damon never wanted to forget._

"STUPID STUPID STUPID! I'll put..." Kick. "Your fucking..." Kick. "Head in..." Kick. "MY GARDEN!" All the dahleks after the stolen Earth had exploded, for little or no reason. Damon was currently engaged in kicking the half exploded head of a dahlek casing off the rest of the ruined drone. "I'll put your head on my WALL!" Damon snarled, punching this time.

CRREEEKK... the head rocked a little, but it didn't bust.

"HEY! What are you doing over there?" A man in a blue felt coat and a dark skinned woman wearing a leather jacket had been supervising cleanup. Both strode over, eyeing Damon's struggle with the ruined piece.

Damon grinned. "Getting me a new..." Damon stood on one foot and /spun/ in a kick that would have knocked a grown man to the ground. This time... KAPWING! The half exploded hatch flung free of the casing. "Flowerpot!" Damon leapt up in the air and caught the flying piece of metal. "Touchdown." He said with a fiendish grin. "Hmmm, I should find a few more."

"oh no you don't." The man calmly lifted the piece of metal out of Damon's hands. "civilians don't get these."

"Awww, but the dahleks RUINED my greenhouse! I do research at the university, my senior thesis got ruined because of them! I'm a botany student there. I'm not gonna do anything bad with it." Damon whined. "I need the pieces to replace the pots that got shattered!"

"We're just cleaning up everything in general." The woman told him. "Its nothing you did. Martha, Martha Jones. That's Jack."

"I'm in charge of Torchwood, and its nothing against you. We're just gathering up all the wreckage from the dahlek invasion. Some of this stuff is sensitive, I'm not worried about flowerpots, i'm worried about the crackpot scientist that might decide to take these things apart."

"Oh please, people could benefit from researching the tech they left behind. Can you imagine some of the stuff you could build if those things were melted down? Or if some engineer somewhere could figure out how to reproduce the metal for their shells, I doubt a single building built with the stuff would fall. For any reason. With the Hurricane in Louisianna and the Tsunami in the Pacific, whole lives crumbled apart, better building and safety materials would be useful! And then there's the machines you could build." Damon's eyes glowed at the idea.

"Yeah, and building girders might turn into armored tanks." Jack told him. "Forget it, we're taking all this stuff in. I've already got competition with UNIT to try and get everything." He bowed to Martha. "no offense to you but your people need to learn to cool it a little more."

"I'd agree with you on that." Martha said with a faint smile. "Iaaanto, we found another one!" She called, waving her arm to signal the work crews over.

A second man hurried over. Damon had started circling the wreck, crouched down. "Hey get away from there." Jack told him. "something in it might go off."

"Oh please, see? I'm no techy, but that torn bunch of wires guerantees nothing is gonna explode in this thing. And I wanna take a peek. I never got to inspect a wrecked Dahlek before, the last time I saw one it did the wrecking." He said quietly. "I wanna get a closer look."

"Yes, the Dahleks did a LOT of wrecking. Half the WORLD was wrecked when they stole it. If the Doctor hadn't come when he did we'd ALL be wrecked." Jack said sarcastically, impatient to shoo Damon away from the wreck and out of his hair.

"I'm not talking about the stolen Earth." Damon stood, a cold stare meeting the Captain's eye. "I'm talking about 3 years ago. When the Dahleks and Cybermen ran a firefight over half the planet." He said cooly. "You think just because you fight aliens you can push everybody around. If I were in charge of Torchwood I wouldn't be in such a hurry. But then, I'd keep the flowerpot too." Damon grinned, sticking his tongue out at Jack. "So you'll forgive me for saying. Fuck you."

Jack's face was twitching, Ianto grinned. Martha giggled. "You think you can do a better job?" Jack sneered. "You don't know what I've seen. I'm way more qualified than you, and a hot shot botany /student/ shouldn't be poking his nose where it doesn't belong. You couldn't even brew the coffee." He grabbed Damon by the collar and shoved him against the wall.

Damon grinned fiendishly, right before he brought his knee up into Jack's stomach. "I'm hotter than you think, /Jackie/" He sneered. An elbow came up towards the captain's chest to finish the job. "Punk." He turned up his nose. "If you won't let me join your team, at least let me help with the cleanup!"

"Who's the PUNK?" Jack wheezed. "you're the one throwing the punches." He did stop the elbow, turning Damon around and pulling him into a headlock. "And no, you're a botany STUDENT you're not going to help cleanup."

"Jack." Martha moved to push the two apart.

Ianto stopped her. "Martha don't." He eyed Jack, "I think I know what he's doing."

By sheer force of muscle, Damon whirled, and suddenly a kick knocked Jack's feet out from under him. "Really, /Jack/ looks like the botany student isn't as weak as he LOOKS huh?" A boot pressed into Jack's chest. "I was first place in Brooklyn Unified Dojo's mixed martial arts tournament five years running." He said cooly. "I could probably fight aliens blindfolded. My sister probably could with a hand tied behind her back" He pulled back his foot. "Let me help with the wreckage!"

Jack sat up. "Oh really, why don't you follow me for a day and see how you'd fare at Torchwood?" He asked annoyedly. "If you can keep up with the workcrews, that's fine. As for joining my team, you wouldn't last a day."

"Reeeaaalllly, I get to follow you around for a day? SWEET! Its a date." Damon grinned. "I'll bet you 20 Quid I last for a month!" His grin turned fiendish.

"I'm dating Ianto, but the sentiment is appreciated." Jack grinned. "If I have my way, you won't even be here for a week."

Of course, soon after, one day turned into two, then a week, a month, a few months. Until finally Damon convinced Jack to let him stay. The only condition was that he had to finish his botany degree before he be officially listed as Torchwood staff.

_Damon awoke with a start, he smelled coffee. "Mmmm..." He grinned. "Ianto came already? I sure slept in. I should bring some for Mori."_

"Morning everyone." Jack came from the direction of his office. He was mincing his right leg just a little, and he was grinning hugely.

"Darling, you're limping." Damon smirked. "Did you get some good sex last night and leave me out?"

Martha started laughing. A blush tinged her cheeks, and her grin was huge.

"I'm not limping. And I don't know what you're..."

Doctor walked out from the same direction. "Morning everyone."

Martha grinned. "You're glowing." She told Doctor.

"Huh? No I'm not." The timelord checked his hands and feet. "Nope, no glow."

"I MEAN, the smug little glow a person has when they've just had a night of very gratifying sex." Martha teased, offering Doctor a coffee. "Here, Ianto makes a great cup."

Six pairs of eyes looked from Jack, to Doctor, to Jack. Then Damon started laughing, Martha joined in, and the rest of Jack's team's jaws dropped. "The two of you?" Gwen sputtered.

Doctor's face colored. "Should I say anything?" He asked Jack.

"Nope..."

"I thought that was some kind of weird companion taboo or something." Owen gawked. "Or is there some other reason..."

"He just tends to push other people away." Martha said with a sigh as she gulped at her coffee. "He could use an... er... well a fun night."

"You knew?" Doctor asked, almost choking on his coffee.

"I heard you two last night, when the fun started I figured I'd make sure you two weren't walked in on." Martha said with a small smile. "You needed something."

"Does /everybody/ around here poke into everyone else's private life?" Doctor asked.

"Well why not?" Damon giggled. "I heard about the fiasco at Gwen's wedding, I almost fell out of my chair laughing."

"Oh yeah, really funny." Gwen wrinkled her nose and aimed a fork at Damon. "What I find amazing is that you can pay attention to 3 monitors at once and still knit those little projects of yours."

"He /knits/?" Doctor's eyebrows rose. "How did /that/ come about?"

"Uhhuh. Its simple Gwen, I know a needle and thread, a pair of knitting needles, and that little handloom you saw me use a few months ago, so well that I could use one blindfolded. Its like touchtyping. If I went blind tomorrow all I'd need was my yarn and cloth sorted by color and type and I'd still be able to make them. Besides, I think better when my hands are moving." Damon explained. "Believe it or not, when my hands are sewing seams or knitting stitches, my mind is processing the data on the screen over and over again. The rhythmn of my hands makes finding patterns in data easier for me to find and basic facts easier to memorize."

"Damon is very artistic, he claims that knitting while reviewing data helps him think better." Jack grinned, shaking his head. "Or sewing, and he makes hangings at home. Been to his flat the walls are covered with them." Damon blushed. "He can watch four monitors and knit while he's doing it."

"I still don't see how you do it." Owen was busy making a list of things he had to do in the infirmary. "I can do medical stitches, but those don't do too well on cloth. And if your hands are dead, well, its really tough then isn't it? you can't feel the cloth beneath your fingers or the needle when you get pricked."

"Its like touch typing. You have to be able to sew without looking, by the feel of the cloth beneath your fingers. I'm so good at it because I've been sewing and knitting for so long you could blindfold and deafen me and I could do it." Damon repeated with a grin. "Besides, moving my hands helps me think. If I'm working on a knitting pattern I tend to notice patterns in data. Because doing one gets my logical skills working to help me with the other..."

He was about to say more... but then a yawn behind them alerted the group to Mori's presence behind them. Her hair looked mussed, eyes half closed in irritation, and she had the look of a monster hangover. "My head feels like somebody did a drum solo inside it. Gimme caffine or I'll wring your neck." Mori croaked, bleary eyes focusing rougly in Ianto's direction.

Damon laughed and threw his arms around his sister. "You're up! You're here!"

"And you're between me and caffine induced coherance." Mori said dryly. "Now please, you're smothering me." She said as she followed the scent of coffee. "Black." She ordered Ianto groggily, "no cream and lots of sugar."

Martha stared as the younger timelord as she crossed the room. "are you alright?"

"Absolutely splendid." Mori said sarcastically. "I changed species last night, how do you expect I'd act?" She took a deep whiff of coffee and gulped at it.

Jack chuckled, but it was the Doctor who spoke. "How are you feeling?"

"Like I got run over by a truck." Mori groaned. She caught sight of her reflection in the nearest computer screen. "oh... oh my..." She leaned in, blinking in surprise at her reflection. "My eye color changed!" She sounded delighted. "Plain, old, ordinary, brown." She grinned. "I had gold eyes, I got made fun of over and over for it."

Martha giggled, a smile crossing her face. "When a timelord regenerates, their physical appearance changes." She said with a smile as she crossed the room to take a seat next to Mori. The look she shot Damon was a warning.

"Damon... i know you're glad to see your sister. Why don't we go over to the meeting room and plan a welcome party!" Jack said brightly, pushing Damon out of the room. "All of you go help him. Martha, Doctor and I will stay here and get Mori some breakfast!"

Mori stared into the cup. Her expression plainly depressed. "What do I think? What do I say?" Mori asked quietly. "I feel like my skin isn't mine. Everything is clearer, everything is sharper. I feel stronger. I feel smarter. But at the same time I feel like a total clutz. Something in me was torn apart, and something in me was rebuilt, and something in me just feels... strange." She sighed. "something in me is sad too... I don't know why or how, just that something is gone and I'm alone. I don't know what I should do or say or think. Should I try to fit back into human society? Act like nothing happened? Should I run off into the stars?"

"I think we can find something for you." Jack said with an encouraging smile. "Despite his eccentricity, Damon's earned a ton of fa..."

"NO." Mori told him.

"No what?" Doctor asked.

"Don't put me up somewhere because Damon guilted you into it. Don't feel like you're obliged to help me, just because I'm related to him. You know, when they attacked, I ran out into the melee to try and find him. The last thing I told him before he disappeared was that I hated him. I feel horrible about that. I'm glad I got to change that... but I don't want him SMOTHERING me and I want to be treated based on what /I/ do rather than what /he/ does." Mori emphasized.

Jack nodded, a reassuring smile on his face. Martha spoke up. "You know, you're going to need a few things. A change of clothes? Your jeans were a disgrace, and it looked like you ran the soles off your sneakers."

"Airforces, they look cute, they're fashionable, they cost 80 bucks a pair, but they can't really stand up to landing a capoeira kick on a Dahlek or sweeping the legs out from under a cyberman."

"You actually did that?" Martha's eyes widened.

"Trying to get through the melee. ANYTHING between me and where Damon might be had to get out of the way. Its kinda hard to knock over a dahlek, because their center of gravity is low to the ground and the shape of their casings makes tipping one difficult. But Cybermen are brittle. Their center of gravity is high, the metal parts make their joints stiff, and they're vicious but they seem to think that humans will be too scared of them to fight back. They're completely unexpecting of retaliation. Taking down a half dozen of them is like knocking bottles over at the Big E." Mori was rapidly draining her cup of coffee.

"you and damon seem to like the martial arts thing." Jack arched an eyebrow. "He does mixed, you?"

"My style is more of a mashup. I love anything that's graceful, fast, and packs a punch. I mixed some modern dance steps from school in there, EVERYBODY at school dances and has some amount of talent to it." Mori sighed. "Poetry in motion."

The three looked at each other. "Rose was good with guns, this is Damon's thing. There was a dojo near their apartment." Jack added for the Doctor's benefit. "Mori, you're going to need a change of clothes. You're probably either going to end up working with me at Torchwood or going on a trip with the Doctor."

"Huh? Trip?"

"You're a timelord now." The doctor said gently. "If you're willing to come with me, I can teach you about our people."

Mori sighed, thinking hard. "I think... The message mom left..." Mori dug out the sonic pen that her mother had left, and as the message played in its entirety, tears started to fill her eyes. "I see..." She said quietly. "I want to find them." She said suddenly. "Doctor, can you help me?" Mori said quietly. "I want to find them, I want answers. My mom died before she could tell me anything. She left just one clue..."

Jack looked over at Doctor. "I'll Search Torchwood. We've collected data on a lot of things over the years. You might want to drop by Sarah Jane's when Mori's feeling better. Heck, when its over I'm sure Mori could slip into Luke's class as a transfer student sound good Mori?"

"School, after all of this. Yeah, I suppose." Mori laughed. "I look younger than I am. A new place, a new identity... might be an adventure." She said with a warm smile. "Yeah, whoever can help me find others like me, or some clue as to what happened to bring all of this about."

"Alright, Jack, Doctor, this is womans work." Martha said with a smile. "We need to get Mori some new clothes before she goes anywhere. But I'm curious too. I've never seen Sarah Jane's place. She ends up coming to one of us if she needs help, not the other way around."

"Alright, we'll Search the database while you're gone. Mori..." Jack said as he stood. "A few words before you go with Martha."

"oooooh, you're getting all serious. Should I be scared?" Mori asked, a loopy grin on her face.

"No, just wanted to talk." Jack nodded his head in an indication for Mori to follow. "Might want to freshen up before you go out. Your hair looks like it went through a windtunnel."

"Really? You know I've been thinking, either cut it or get it done in braids. Wouldn't be the first new york white trash to try it." Mori found a hairbrush in her pack and started detangling her hair. "Man, you're right. Forget windtunnel, think hoover vacume cleaner.

They were in the infirmary now. "Damon, you realize that you're the whole reason why he joined Torchwood."

"I thought that might be the case." Mori said with a sigh. "I really, really wish that it weren't. Trust me though, he'll stay with your team now." She sighed, "He's devoted like that. If you have his loyalty once, you have it forever, and he'll walk through fire if it would save someone he cares about."

"He dyed his hair."

"I noticed. He was... devestated wasn't he?" Mori asked, looking anywhere but at Jack. "He didn't used to dress like that, he used to PREFER button up shirt and tie and it was just... funny. He goes from being all formal suit and tie to being punkish and... well... metro in appearance if you know what I mean? I knew he was gay, he just didn't dress according to the stereotype. He hated stereotypes."

"Yeah, I never knew why he acted out, not for a long time but then..."

* * *

_A few months before..._

"And, that's about it for the meeting everyone. We have work to do, that smuggling ring has alien tech and we need to bust them. Lets..."

"Jack... I... I know its a seriously bad time, but I need the day." Damon sighed. "Sorry its... personal."

"Damon, we need you today. This guy might have plant derived poisons as part of his security system. ALIEN plants, you're better than anybody at that kind of thing."

"This is personal. I'm sorry." Damon said and turned to go.

"We roll out this evening, will you be back by then?" Jack asked, a worried look on his face.

"Yeah, I might. I never miss a party do I?" Damon asked. A small smile curled his face. "There's something I need to do today. Its important."

_"I thought there was something up, Damon is really enthusiastic, gung ho, he's always willing to help and eager to please. Unless it was dire, he never said "I can't go." That's the kind of person he is. Something was wrong, I had an afternoon to waste, I knew my team could take care of itself and I followed."_

Damon's apartment was alive with scents, that was the first thing that hit Jack's nose. The scent of flowers, of incense, of coffee. Music was playing softly on a boombox that looked about 3 years out of date.

Then he saw the reason for Damon's reluctance. A family picture of him, a woman with long raven hair and warm green eyes was behind clung to by a 8 year old Damon. A baby girl with oddly gold colored eyes, only about 1 or 2, was clutched in the woman's arms and all three were smiling. It /looked/ like the picture was taken during the summer or early fall, and they were at a campground of some kind. Their mother was wearing an old fashioned purple dress with a triquetta and triple moon design on it, and there was a symbol half visible on the back. The dress was laid out on the bed nearby, so the design was clearer, a dragon and phoenix entwined. Next to the picture, two origami crane garlands had been hung, along with two white lillies set out in a vase. Hanging above the picture was an odd wooden carving with the same symbol as the dress, and beneath it, a small red laquer box with the same dragon and phoenix insignia.

"Damon?" Jack asked quietly.

Damon was sitting by the window looking out. The coffee cone on the table looked like it had been used a lot that day, the filter stained brown with repeated use. He whirled, then stood. "J... Jack..."

"What's all this?"

"My... my mother and sister. I lost them when the Dahleks and Cybermen fought over Earth. I... I wanted to get away. That's why I left new york and transferred to the university here. This was... this was the day they finally... they were finally declared dead. I take the day off to think..." Damon said quietly. "Then at the end of the day, as the sun goes down, I send a pair of paper boats with candles in them out over the water." He said with a sigh. He wiped his eyes. "That's why... that's why I wanted to join Torchwood. I thought, 'i might be able to find some answers... and even if I can't... I can stop other brothers, other mothers, other sisters, from losing their loved ones..." He closed his eyes, as if the world around him caused him pain right then.

"I see..." Jack moved further into the room. "Mind if I sit?" The look on his face was the utmost compassion.

"I don't... I... its not as good as Ianto's but I can make some coffee. I break the coffee maker, so I just use..."

"I saw." Jack ran a hand over the dress. "This dragon/phoenix symbol. Its on a lot of your mother's things."

"Dragon, courage, valor, wisdom, the strength of the human race. Phoenix, the bird that always returns. It sets itself on fire yet it always comes back to life... whole, unharmed, uninjured and always able to remember those it was meant to protect. That's what mom said it meant. Together you get the will of mankind." Damon said quietly. "It was on a lot of her things. That picture... it was my 8th birthday." Damon said quietly.

He turned, tears in his eyes. "The University, I was a freshman at Hudson, told everyone to stay indoors, we ran down to the bomb shelter. I... I wanted to go back up. But I was too scared, and the professors wouldn't let anybody out. I begged, I pleaded, I wanted to find Mori. When I came out on the other end... New York looked like it had been firebombed! I was numb... I ran everywhere... I didn't know where I was going. I had to find Mom, I had to find Mori. Maybe if I hadn't been so... broken... I could have found her... even if it was just her corpse. I keep thinking what could I have done wrong? I failed my sister, I failed my mom. If I had just been a little braver..."

"We're... New Yorkers tend to be very prideful of our city. It was built to the skies by steel workers who walked on a wire to build some of the most beautiful structures in the world. It was made sturdy and solid by sandhogs who braved the depths of the earth to make sure we had water, light, power, transportation. It was protected and made strong by our firefighters, our policemen. It was made alive by our artists, dancers, writers, painters and musicians. To see the state it was in... I was shellshocked. I wandered for hours, hoping to see somebody I knew still alive. I found my friends later. Most of them were fine. But when I... I returned home. She wasn't there. Mom's safe had been broken into, Mori and I learned how to crack that lock when I was ten. The laquer box she told us never to touch was left behind on mom's bed open. There was music playing and coffee waiting. It looked like she had waited for me. I remembered that very morning she'd told me she hated me. She said "drop dead" well... after you've just been attacked, that phrase takes on a whole new meaning. I know Mori, she would have run out into the path of a bus if it meant she could take something like that back. I knew what had happened. Mom wasn't there. I wasn't there. Mori had run out to find us. If I'd been there... if I'd been there to protect her... she wouldn't have run out into that... melee, just to get to me..."

Damon dissolved into tears, wrapping his arms around Jack. He was recieved with open arms. "I act up... because I miss her. The day she... the day she died... the fight we had was over hairdye. I didn't want her to wear it. I... thought she looked stupid" He couldn't talk, he just cried. "She said she hated me... she said 'drop dead Damon' and flung something at me, and I just turned and ran off to class."

* * *

"He kept all that hurt inside him for so long... he wanted to be near, with, anybody who knew about the same things he did, who had been through similar pain." Jack said quietly. "I can understand the pain he went through." (1)

"That would have been the day you two got together..." Mori said quietly.

"Yeah. I kinda... flipflop between him and Ianto. Sometimes the three of..."

"Details..." Mori said quietly, though she chuckled. "Too many details."

"Go easy on him... he thought you were still around LONG after other people gave up." Jack told her. "It tore him up inside."

Mori had managed to groom herself just a bit. "Appreciated." She said cooly. "I'll deal with Damon later." She said calmly. "I... have to learn to deal with being a new species."

"he's your brother." Mori couldn't read Jack's face. "Aren't you worried about him?"

"I'll DEAL with him later." Mori told Jack calmly. "The first thing on my mind when I left my apartment that morning was 'I never got to say, have a good day damon, he's going to die thinking I'm mad at him' but when I left the apartment I was still human. Even my senses are all different now. Human vision is like putting dialup internet next to high speed. And that's just vision. And my /mind/ feels like somebody fed it steroids. Last week I was facing an F in Chemistry, now I could recite the answers to every question on the final with like, one mistake, maybe two. And don't forget, its been YEARS for him, a day for me." She shouldered her backpack. "Just my luck, my eyes are finally normal, but I'm legally dead and thus can't go to school..."

"We can probably take care of that for you." Jack said with a grin. "You're welcome to stay as long as you'd like."

"Yes, but I have something I want to do first." Mori said with a backwards smile. "Find others like me, remember? I'll see you this afternoon Jack, something tells me we'll have plenty of... well... time to get to know each other." Mori said with a goofy grin.

"Wait, aaah..." Jack paused. "Mori, don't forget to say goodbye this time." He reminded her.

"I won't" Mori promised. "Marthaaaaa! The mall! Hidey ho!" Mori said with a giggle. "Damon, I'll see you later. I promise this time." She said with a wink.

"We're going too..." Gwen said with a smile. "Can't let our guests get lost."

"me too!" Toshiko said cheerfully. "Girls day out."

Gwen mouthed as soon as Mori's back was turned. 'Bodyguard.' Jack nodded and pointed in the Doctor's direction. Gwen shook her head and mouthed. 'Damon.' "Hey Damon, I'm sure you and Jack can catch the Doctor up with what's been going on." She said sweetly. "No need to worry about us girls, we can take care of ourselves." She was slowly ushering Mori and Martha out of the room, motioning for Toshiko to follow. "Alright, Mori we're going to need to get you some extra clothes. Since you only have what you're wearing. New shoes too. Shoes are a good thing right?"

"Forget shoes." Mori grinned. "I want fishnets and tripp pants. And the occasional baby t style shirt."

"Then what are we waiting for ladies?" Toshiko mouthed to Martha. 'Fresh air.' "And when we're done, we'll show you the sights. Stimulate that newly transformed Timelord brain of yours yeah?"

As they left, they heard Jack say. "Well, technically we don't have any cases pending, so unless an emergency comes up, we get to have a guys night out."

"Yeah, hounddog." Damon teased.

Mori burst out laughing. "Lets hope they keep out of trouble."

"With Jack? You'd better pray." Gwen quipped.

1. I thought Jack could identify with Damon after the incident with Grey.


	4. A new look and Departure for Easling

When Mori got a whiff of city breezes she let out a whoop and kicked up her heals. "WOO! Fresh air!" She giggled, turning around and around with her arms outstretched. She'd just walked into the mall, and her eyes had lit up with excitement.

The mall was crowded, shoppers hurrying this way and that, "Wow, my first trip outside the US." Mori sighed in relief. And suddenly she felt shy, stopping at the entrance.

"Its just the mall." Martha chuckled. "You're sure happy."

"Dunno why... its like... everything's NEW again. I mean..." Mori tried to describe what it seemed like to her.

"SO." Toshiko said in the nosey tone only a gossiping woman can. "What's it like?"

"Like what?"

"I mean, from a human point of view, what's it like being a timelord?" Toshiko asked curiously.

"Hmmm... well for starters, if you tried to grab onto the mind, its like grabbing a high tension powerline. It used to take me AGES to translate one paragraph in Latin. I can probably pick up the Aeneid and read it like it was my first language. Then there's the senses. Ever have glasses? I'll probably get used to it, but right now my eyesight seems like... the sharp, crisp look you get when you put on a new pair of glasses. And... the rest I really can't describe. You have to /walk/ in the shoes really." Mori took a deep breath, "Speaking of shoes, so where do we start, J Crew or Hollister?"

Martha started to laugh. "J Crew and Hollister are only in America." Gwen rolled her eyes. "Come on." She lead the way through the mall.

"Really? No American Eagle or Pacific Sun?" Mori sounded disappointed. "Darn." The eyed the older woman. "What's wrong, don't like malls?"

"American Eagle? Really?" Martha teased. "This is Wales Mori. What would they need with American Eagle?"

"What can I say? I'm a Mall american mutt." Mori quipped. "Mall American. I like that! Cynical and clever!"

"Oh no I love them." Gwen said sarcastically. "A maze filled with rats squabbling over cheese, what could be more fun? Come on, I'll show you what stores we DO have." Gwen shook her head. "I don't do malls unless its Christmas. They're too crowded and annoying."

Mori kept up easily, and had a grin on her face akin to a kid in a candy store. "Here, this one." She beckoned the other girls over to a store window. "I LOVE that dress." She pointed. "Sapphire blue, kinda cute, and I love the color, what do you think?"

"you sure you wanna show up in a blue dress?" Martha teased. "The old song..."

"Devil with a blue dress on." Mori rolled her eyes. "I forgot about that. Hmmm..." She caught sight of a familiar grey, black and red storefront. "Hot topic!" She squealed. "I can even get hairdye. Come on!"

"Something tells me we're going to have to put a leash on her." Gwen muttered to Toshiko as they followed Mori. "Easy there. Besides Mori, you do martial arts, what's going to happen if you try to kick a badguy wearing a /dress./"

Mori blushed. "Oh right, fine." She started going through the racks of clothes. "I could find my way through this store blindfolded." She dug through the rack of tops. "I'll probably need just a couple of pairs of jeans, probably get one pair of cargoes. I can dance in them but they're rather easy to get things tangled up in." Mori found a sapphire blue corset vest, the kind that ties in back, "But I'll probably need a week's worth of shirts. Aaaah, fishnets are such a wonderful thing. Great for getting past school dresscodes."

"You like getting past school dresscodes?" Toshiko handled the shirts like a kid handling something that had cooties. "You don't strike me as a troublemaker."

"Honey, I don't just dress to kill, I dress to shock and scandalize." Mori told her. "Damon actually makes pretty good clothes. He'll probably have been making some accessory or something for Christmas the year I disappeared." A couple of tubetops were added to the pile. She stopped by the band t-shirts and blinked. "Oh I want this one." She tugged a Gorillaz shirt with the band insignia on it from the top of the pile "hmmm... yeah but I don't think I'll wear it." She stopped by the men's clothing. "Oh this looks like something Jack would wear." She indicated a tight looking black snap up yoke shirt. "I want it too... aaah, do I look okay in a man's shirt?"

"That one yeah. Might want more effeminate clothing though." Martha stopped by the clearance rack. "I want this one." It was a black corsette top, sleeveless, with dragon shaped studs along the collar. "What do you think?" She held it up. The former companion was trying her best to be the big sister of the group. Mori had her brother, but there really was nothing like having and older sibling of the same gender. Besides, she kind of liked Mori.

"I love it! You'd look cute! Get it!" Mori squealed. Gwen's face was twitching. Toshiko was giggling, "Whaaat! She'll look CUTE in it!"

"Don't go crazy you two." Gwen rolled her eyes but was interrupted by Toshiko. The girl grinned and pushed her towards the lingeure. "You should get something to wear for Rhys, youuuuu know... My old friend Naomi works here. She'll be able to point to something a married woman SHOULD be wearing for her husband."

"Oh no you don't!" Gwen shook her head. "I don't do goth. It doesn't work on me."

"Here Martha, I LOVE these, but they're like... sixty bucks US a pair!" She held up a pair of royal blue tripp cargo pants. "I LOVE this brand. But see how everything kinda... jingles when you walk? It would get caught on things." Mori picked out some relatively normal pairs of jeans, two plain black and a pretty good fit on Mori, the younger timelord was skinny as a rake. A pair of tiger patterened blue and black jeans was tossed on the pile for the heck of it.

"How about these? Same colors, but the straps hug the waist. No snags." Martha suggested. "Some cultures wouldn't get some of the designs here, or like them. And if you're going back in time to someplace on Earth, the locals will be scandalized enough seeing a woman in pants."

"Ooooooooh!" Mori squealed, snatching them. "Yeah, those. One skirt. Just one skirt. Then we just need shoes and I'm done."

"you'll be awefully cold without a jacket." Martha reminded her.

"Trust me when I say Damon's got that covered." Mori picked through the skirts and took about thirty seconds to find one that fit. "Heeeere we go! Simple and plain." She held it up.

"And you're so fortunate that Jack is paying for all of this." Gwen scolded. "These..." She told the cashier.

The woman at the cashier grinned, then spotted Toshiko. "TOSH! Darling! I've missed you lately! Have you been busy at Torchwood? I'm so jealous, you get to run special opps and I'm selling clothes for tuition." She pouted. "you never come around anymore." Then she spotted Gwen and beamed. "Oh, you're that cute second in command at Torchwood aren't you?" The cashier smirked. "Think you could get me Jack's autograph? I hear he's a hottie."

Gwen rolled her eyes, and Toshiko giggled. "You don't know the half of it. But no Naomi, we're just here to get Mori some spare clothes."

"New recruit?" Naomi asked hopefully. "I'm Naomi, Tosh is a friend of mine." She said cheerfully. "My own personal tech support."

"Oh... not me. My older brother joined recently though." Mori blushed. "They're just trying to make me feel at home. Is... is Torchwood that public? I'm from America, I wouldn't know."

"Oh yeah, well sort of. We don't really know all of what you guys get up to in there. But everybody knows that when somebody holds up a badge and calls 'torchwood' you run for cover, no questions asked, cause weird stuff always follows in their wake. They're the city's pride and joy them. Aaaah, and my old classmate made it. I'm jealous Tosh, you get to have adventures." Naomi held up Gwen's purchase. "HEALS." Naomi commented. "Simple, buckle up high heals. Are you sure you don't want anything fancier?" Naomi asked, pouting in disappointment. "You'd wear those pretty well." She pointed to a hideous pair of 24 hour red high heals with black bows and skulls on them.

Gwen looked like she was going to blow a gasket. "she doesn't do goth." Toshiko and Martha chorused. "And I'm just getting the one top." Martha blushed. "I normally don't dress goth, /she's/ the gothette." Martha indicated Mori. "But I saw that shirt and I couldn't resist."

"You'll look gorgeous in it, it really flatters your chest, I'm a design student, trust me. I know fashion. Well, girls, happy shopping. And Mori, welcome to Cardiff. You be careful around torchwood, things just tend to happen to them." Naomi said with a wink. "Tosh, you promised you'd help with my computer when you got off work today!" Naomi reminded them as they left.

"I'll remember! and thanks!"

It took all of 2 hours to get Mori's clothes, much less time than Martha thought it would be. After all, one knows how teenage girls get at the mall. A simple duffelbag and backpack took care of luggage, and Mori appearantly just wanted 2 pairs of nikes, since last year's hightops were on sale 2 for the price of one. The rest of the afternoon Gwen and Toshiko gave the visitors the 50 cent tour of the city. "You know..." Gwen said with a sigh as Toshiko took her turn at the wheel. "Its not often we get a day off to ourselves like this."

The Hub was deserted when they got back. "Wow, where did everybody GO?" Mori asked. There was a note taped to Toshiko's computer. "Girls, Damon wanted to get a gift for Mori. We'll be back by dinner. Jack."

"That's a sign for trouble if I ever heard one." Gwen shook her head. "Knowin him he's probably going to come back at midnight, drunk as a sailor with Ianto tellin him to lay off the sauce and come to bed."

Mori stretched. "Well while you're waiting, I'm going to try some of these on!" Mori darted towards the bathroom with the shopping bag in hand.

"Should we worry?" Gwen asked.

"Oh yeah, probably." Martha agreed. "Since I haven't met that many Timelords I don't know if the energy level is a natural thing or if we're just lucky."

"She's probably reacting to the change." Toshiko speculated.

The boys came back around dinner. "I /still/ think you shouldn't have stopped for a drink Jack." Owen shook his head. "That bar, if looks could kill you'd have been dead a hundred times tonight!"

"Then its a good thing they can't." Jack smirked, "oh my god... she's a new woman! Oooh, and that shirt isn't too bad." Mori was wearing the button up man's yoke shirt and the pair of strap pants Martha had picked out for her. "Not that bad."

The Doctor arched an eyebrow. "Should you be wearing so much black?"

"It was this or the fishnets. Don't worry, not all the stuff I got is black." Mori chuckled. "I like black, blue and red typically. Yellow just... doesn't do it for me. Occasionally I can be coaxed into green or purple."

"Good to know." Doctor said sarcastically. "I'm going to have to give you a lesson in dressing inconspicously."

"Typically." Damon rolled his eyes. "Mori wears black from the waist down, color from the waist up." He handed mori a gift box. "THIS is for you. I picked it out and decorated it, Doctor and Jack rigged something special into it."

Mori blinked, opening the box cautiously. "Oh my!" Mori pulled the denim coat out of the box. "NEAT!" She turned it around. "Seeeee?" She pointed to the back. "The family crest aaaaand beneath that."

"The Torchwood insignia." Jack told her. "There's a locator chip in the back under the collar. It won't work back when Torchwood was first created. Those ladies were mean. But turn of the century to the present it will tell our people you're friendly. I calibrated it to go off when your regeneration is triggered. Its like a distress beacon. The Tardis should pick it up too. Doctor can find you ANYWHERE with that homing chip intact, if you get lost or in trouble, he'll be able to help you."

Mori grinned. The dragon and phoenix were overlaid over the current Torchwood insignia, the one with the 't' made of hexagons. But a smaller insignia used on letters and documents was on the back where some brands of clothing would put the brand logo. Mori ran her fingers over it, feeling the chip. "Neat. So..."

"When your regeneration is triggered." Doctor explained. "It sends an automatic distress call to the Tardis saying where and when you are. If you're in the vicinity, it also sends a distress call to Jack here at Torchwood 3."

"And it lets us know that you're friendly." Damon added cheerfully. "The transmitter was Tosh's invention. Believe it or not most of the security used by the other Hubs is based on programs SHE wrote." Toshiko rolled her eyes, blushing a bit. "Well they ARE. And there are what... 23 hubs besides cardiff?"

Mori experimentally pulled the coat on. "WOW, i like it." She blinked. "Didn't know you guys were so prolific." She said with a cheerful grin. "You Torchwood folks are like fleas... one hitches a ride, you all do!"

"London has JUST rebuilt itself." Ianto reminded Jack. "So for awhile it was just 22. And I know several officers there who would have been offended at being called a 'flea'."

"Who's counting?" Owen rolled his eyes. "So Doctor, will you be staying long? You strike me as the shy sort, the seeerious kind." He teased. "You should stick around, might be good for you."

"Not particularly long no." The Doctor said cooly. "I never really stay in one place for long. As soon as Mori is able, we're leaving."

"Project Ark?" Mori asked, meaning the message from her mother's transmission. "I mean, if we're going to be hunting for data... we DO need a next move."

"That's the trouble. We didn't find anything in our database or any of the other HUBS, though there's a note that some data on the Timewar's aftermath and information about any timelords that were on Earth, the Doctor included was stored at Torchwood London. Unfortunately Torchwood London's databanks got TOTALED in the Battle at Canary Warf. Their science officers tried to upload their databanks to three other hubs, just in case something happened during transmission. They were killed before the upload could be completed." Jack shook his head. "Most of the information and equipment stored there was destroyed or damaged beyond repair."

Ianto cut in. "I was there. They're literally rebuilding everything from the ground up. And its not worth going back in time to see if they have it. It said the "aftermath" of the timewar. That could mean the project, or it could mean everything BUT what you're looking for. They tended to save everything, their tech officer was a real packrat. Not to efficient either, Toshiko would have been appalled."

"Your best bet is probably to go to Sarah Jane's place up in Easling. She collects information on Alien activity and then gives it to her computer Mister Smith. And the AI that became Mister Smith was around for thousands of years before she found him. So she's never been able to sort through the entire database, there might be information she's never looked at stored in there." Jack explained. "Hell, sometimes she sends me things I'VE never seen, and I'm the professional."

"So our next stop is Sarah Jane, and we plan our move from there?" Mori asked the Doctor.

"I think so, yes." Doctor told her. "I was never easy around Torchwood, its not Jack's fault, or his team. I've just had some bad experiences with them in the past. Old habits are hard to break."

"At least let us make sure you have dinner before you leave." Gwen frowned. "I'm not going to send you off hungry."

"Are you sure you're not just getting attached?" Jack teased.

"If you mean would I ever leave my post to go on a journey with him, no, I wouldn't. I have a home, and a family, and its my job to remain here and protect the place while YOU'RE out galavanting around with him." Gwen eyed her leader sidelong. "However, if you mean 'attached' as in professional respect and common courtesy? Then yes."

"Wow, Jack she's good." Mori said with a chuckle. "Can I borrow any of that attitude Gwen?"

"No."

"Gwen kept the Hub running while I was traveling with you and Martha. And any woman that's willing to bash me in the head? That's something special." Jack explained. "Every leader needs somebody to put him or her on a leash if they get into trouble, I'd trust her about as much as you would Martha."

"Speaking of which." Martha added. "I contacted my commanding officers at UNIT, I'm allowed to have another week off to myself. I'll go with you and Mori to meet Sarah Jane, go back to the Hub for a night, and then return to New York to finish salvage the morning after."

"Sounds like a plan." Mori grinned hugely. "And I get to spend another evening with my brother before I go off with you."

"Party in the Hub?" Owen asked hopefully.

That had only happened TWICE in the history of his team. Most of the time, even if there weren't any cases pending, there was enough routine maitenance or reports, enough things that had to be done that they were too tired or too busy to do any partying. Hell, they even had a cold case storage area for unsolved cases, just in case something from the past reappeared. And there were analysis to conduct on this or that artifact. At the end of the day, everybody was tired and wanted to go home or out for the night.

"Yep, are you kidding? There are no cases pending, Martha AND Doctor are visiting, and Damon has his little sister back. I'd say that's cause for a party!" Jack grinned. "And to think I was getting BORED before you guys showed up!" He caught it barely out of the corner of his eye, Damon's expression had him worried.

It was the look of somebody who had been through too much in too short an amount of time. He'd seen it on Owen's face when he was ressurected, on Toshiko's face after the incident with the soldier from World War 1.

"I'll be back in an hour with takeout and drinks and DONT get into any trouble." Gwen warned Jack, "Last time you planned anything festive it took a month to fix the damage."

"I'll behave! Honest." Jack laughed. "Damon, lets go get cleaned up. I think its best we stay out of the way of the women." Jack tugged the Botanist away. "Alright, what's up?"

Damon eyed Mori and the Doctor as he left. "Nothing..."

"You're worried that what happened to Mori could happen to you?"

"Yeah..."

"Not happy about it?" Jack asked.

"No, i'm not." Damon said cooly. "I happen to like my humanity, and I'd much rather stay here at the hub with you and Ianto then go with them." He looked the other in the eye and said simply. "If you breathe a word of this to Mori I'll strangle you, but frankly I'm SCARED. Everybody says the Timelords were so great, but they're DEAD." (1)

"Owen is working on a way to test for the Ark Trigger, can you save going angsty on me until its finished?" Jack asked Damon, trying to reassure him. He wasn't surprised at Damon's reaction, one of the things that struck Jack as unusual was the similarity in background. He'd lost Grey because he let go of his hand, Damon lost Mori, and blamed himself for not going out to try and rescue her. "That's why Mori and Doctor are going out. They're trying to find data."

"Whatever." Damon leaned back against the wall. "I just hope she comes back in one piece... Jack, when she comes back. Legally Mori is dead, do you think you could help her come up with a new identity?"

"If she'll have it." Jack chuckled. "She's a fierce one, you're lucky to have her. She said she wanted to earn her own way. Give her what she's worked for."

"That's Mori." Damon drooped. "Things are going to cool down again. I feel like giving Simply Stitches a visit, the Fates that run it are always friendly."

"You have... the weirdest contacts. A yarn shop run by the greek goddesses of life and death." Jack had met Haruka and her sisters Harmony and Hope. They were the three fates, the sisters who wove the fabric of mankind, and when it was time for somebody to die, they were the ones who cut the string binding that person to this world. Most of the time they were friendly, but Haruka took her duty seriously. Haruka had made it clear, she was willing to help Torchwood if they needed a little bit of friendly spiritual advice, but if it were time for any member of the Torchwood team to go, Jack included, she wouldn't hesitate to cut their life cord. Somehow Jack had felt like he was back in gradeschool, and they were always giving away the things they'd made while 'watching' mankind. "Have they slapped you on the wrist with a ruler yet?"

Damon laughed, then turned just in time to see Mori jump Doctor and tug him over to the computer to see if any of her favorite shows were on and what /had/ happened to Tachikoma after they got dismantled? She wanted to see! Then Owen broke out the beer ("Since I can't have any, get tanked."), and Martha scolded him not to harm his body, she didn't want to sew him up again. Gwen called home and promised Rhys she'd be home soon, work went well and she'd tell him all about it when she got home. Toshiko shook her head and watched as she fixed one of the broken monitors. Damon returned to the group just in time to scold Mori for trying to take one of the beers.

It was something like that that Mori wanted to remember. She was an alien, off to find more aliens, she was enjoying a yummy takeout dinner in the control room of an organization that hunted aliens. Her older brother had a boyfriend he liked, the atmosphere was warm and beautiful, and WOW, was that a pterodactyl they were keeping as a guard dog?

Too soon she was sleepy, Martha placed a hand on her shoulder and said quietly. "There's a spare room off the infirmary that you can sleep in."

"What about you?" Mori yawned.

"I'm going to sleep at Tosh's tonight. I'll be back in time to leave in the morning." Martha promised. "And something tells me Jack isn't done with Doctor yet."

"you were /planning/ that last night!"

"oh, a little nudge here and there. A couple of nights, no strings attached, to work off the stress. He's always saving the world after all, even a timetraveling doctor needs a little love!" Martha giggled.

"Alright, I think I'm going to fall over." Mori groaned. "And sleep for a week."

"I hope not, don't think Jack's bum can take a whole week." Martha snickered, pointing. Sure enough, Jack was tugging Doctor gently towards his room. "Ianto you're welcome to join us. This time Doctor, /i/ top."

"We'll see about that." Doctor rolled his eyes, then whispered "You can top me when you've turned 900. For now..."

"Your doctor, your night." Ianto quipped, sounding just a tad annoyed.

"Come on Ianto..." Damon purred, tugging on his arm. "Just because Jack is having some alone time doesn't mean we can't have fun." He was drunk, you could tell, his cheeks were rosy, his ears were pink, and he was leaning all over the other.

"You'll probably fall asleep by the time we get to my place, you're too drunk to snog anything." Ianto rolled his eyes.

Mori stumbled for the spare room, Martha making sure she got there alright. The former companion waited until she was sure that the young Timelord was asleep before leaving a wrapped package on the bedside. "Night Mori." And left.

There was no alarmclock, long ago Owen had done that deliberately when he set up the spare room. It was meant to be a place to rest, ergo, no alarmclock. It was 9 am when Damon rapped on the door. "Rise and shine little bird..."

"Five more minutes Damon..." Mori grumbled.

"Don't think so, you'll want some of Ianto's supercoffee before you go off on a journey with the Doctor..." Damon leaned in to whisper in his sister's ear. "A journey across time and space, sounds exciting neh?" Mori squeaked, toppling out of bed in a mess of blankets. Damon ran off to the control room, laughing.

Mori grasped the edge of the bedside, a wrapped brown package fell on her head. "OW!" Then she picked it up. "To Mori, from Martha." She opened the package. Inside was a large velvet red journal, a golden phoenix was pressed into the cover in glass. A red leather strap neatly closed the volume. A red ribbon marked the place, with a silver bird charm dangling from it. When Mori opened the cover, a letter slipped out.

_Dear Mori,  
The best stories are the ones you tell yourself, I thought you might want something to keep track of your trip in. Have a safe journey._

_Martha_

_PS: When you return, I'll give you a doctors note for school that says you aren't an alien, so you get your wish._

Mori laughed, dressed, then slipped on her new coat... "oh yes, so stylish." The sneakers were squishy and squeaky, perfect. The jeans fit perfectly, with just the right amount of scratch to the denim. Mori slipped on one of the tanktops she'd bought, and then the jacket swirled just right when she put it on. The Journal was lovingly put into the flap of her backpack meant for textbooks. She brushed all the tangles out of her hair, then bolted for the door. "Hiiiiii!" She chimed, stopping at the door. "Good morning everyone, the sun is shining, the birds are singing. Give me coffee..." Mori bolted for the coffee pot.

"you don't need that doll, you're cheerful enough already." Owen quipped.

"And you're a deadman, you need cheer!" Mori chirped. "Martha thanks for the book!" Suddenly Mori had a garlic bagel between her teeth, a dougnut in her hand, and a mug of Ianto's best coffee in her hand. She straddled a chair and started eating.

Martha was already done with breakfast. "No problem. I'm only coming with you for a day or so." She winked. "Won't Sarah Jane be happy to see us!"

"So what's she like?"

"Hmm, late middle age, rust red hair with just a bit of grey. I only saw her once mind you, but she seemed like... you know the old stories of the village wisewoman?"

"Yeah." Mori sighed, gulping on her coffee.

"She's lucky. All the companions before Rose... are not... around anymore. Either too old or..." Doctor bit his lip, shaking his head. (1)

"I see." Mori glanced in the direction of the Tardis. "All of them?"

The Tardis had been resting in the control room the whole time. The Torchwood team had all walked past it every day, but while Jack was familiar with the old blue box, the other four had felt as if they were looking at something... forbidden. The Doctor was Jack's muse, mentor, and mystery.

While Ianto had been present at the battle of Canary Warf, that was the closest he'd gotten to the doctor. He'd heard rumors whispering through HUB 1, 'did you hear? we found a timelord!' 'the doctor! the doctor himself arrived!' 'What? Why would the doctor come here?' 'you missed him Ianto! the doctor went right through that door just a second ago! you should have come down here /early/ like usual! you could have said hello!'

To Gwen that blue box represented an enigma. What about the doctor was it, that people like Jack, or Martha or this Rose person she'd heard about from Jack, what about this doctor was so special? Jack had said earlier that the doctor had been out of sorts when he'd arrived at the Hub. But he held him in such high regard, why?

Toshiko wanted a peek inside, just a peek. Before she'd gone home the day prior, she'd walked over, just a quick look at the inside. But... she couldn't. She felt almost as if even touching the enigmatic little ship would be... violating something. Something hallowed, something sacred.

Owen wasn't sure what to make of either the ship or its occupant. Doctor hadn't wanted to leave a trace of himself behind, even a drop of blood or a hair. Well, he probably shouldn't have asked anyway. And besides, the timelords were once the mightiest alien species out there, the DNA of a timelord being left behind wasn't a good thing anyway. But still, the timelords were a mystery he would have wanted to crack. And besides, Doctor made Jack well. Maybe he'd find a way to make him well too.

Damon was still timid as far as the doctor was concerned. But Damon never really thought of himself as very brave. More than anything in the world, he was fearful of the transformation that Mori had undergone. Something was warring inside of him, something fighting with itself. Human curiousity warring with human fear.

It was probably the quietest morning Hub 3 had ever had. Mori knawed on her breakfast like a dog on a bone, listening to Jack and Martha gossiping about this or that bit of work. But five silent pairs of eyes stayed trained on her section of the room.

Mori got an amused look on her face, the five on one side, the doctor and companions on the other. Doctor seemed quite content to share breakfast and coffee with Jack and Martha. Then the Timelord glanced sidelong and saw five pairs of eyes fixed on him. "Oh COME ON people! You're staring at me like I got the plague or something! I don't /bite!/ I don't have /rabies!/ Why are you sitting all the way over there??" Doctor demanded. "Come on, pull up your chairs and sit. You know Jack thinks highly of you lot!" Doctor beckoned to Jack's team. "Get ova here, you guys face down danger and death every day but you treat me like I've got fleas. Honestly."

Mori started to laugh. Jack rolled his eyes. "Doctor, Mori and Martha are about to leave, come on and say goodbye. Jeez guys, he doesn't come by often."

Four of the five came over to get better aqcuainted, the warmed up to him quickly. Doctor even laughed when Ianto said how close he'd come to seeing him and Rose at Canary Warf. "Ah well, you got your chance." And then Toshiko started in with a million questions about the Tardis. The fact that the doctor's mind was tied into it was something she had a little trouble getting her head around. A /living/ ship, an actual /living/ ship! Owen apologized for when Doctor had first arrived and Gwen asked question after question, mainly about where Jack had come from, and what had Galifrey been like? She'd never been off earth, and when Mori had had enough couldn't she come?

But Damon stayed shy, and as bagel and pastrey flew off the bakery tray and the coffee maker emptied he got quieter and quieter. "Brother... what is it?" Mori asked quietly.

"What you're about to do Mori, I don't think I could ever have the courage to do it. My tie, my loyalty is to the earth under my feet and to Earth as it is now. Just remember, you're a lot stronger than I am."

"But Damon... I feel so horrible. I told you to drop dead and you nearly did. You survived and moved heaven and earth to try and find me again. That's strength in and of itself and you don't know it." Mori clung to her brother.

"all strength is relative Damon." Doctor told him. "Maybe someday you'll find yours, I wouldn't mind taking you with me if you want. Breakfast is over, its time for me and Mori and Martha to go."

"No. My place is here, with Jack, with Torchwood." Damon insisted. "I'll be waiting for you Mori. I promise."

"I'll hold you to that." Mori clung to Damon tightly, then gave her brother a kiss on the cheek. She reached up and whispered in his ear. "'Arma virumque cano, Musa, mihi causas memora'" I sing of arms and of a man oh muse, recall to me the reasons. (2)

Tears fell from Damon's eyes as he whispered back, a quote that he loved from the same book. "Sunt lacrimae rerum et mentem mortalia tangunt." These are the tears of things, and our mortality cuts to the heart. (3)

Martha and Jack and Doctor were saying goodbye again. "You'll be alright here? You won't get into trouble while I'm not around will you?"

"I'll try not to, we don't want to end up resetting things by accident." (4) He joked. "Doctor, remember to celebrate." He winked. "And don't be a stranger, remember Gwen wants to go on an adventure too. And you have to bring Mori back to Damon eventually. Tell Sarah Jane hello for me."

"Oh come on, don't get all teary now Mori." Doctor shook his head when he saw Mori's face. "Come on..." Martha followed Doctor inside, a huge grin on her face.

Mori scooped up her bag and went through, but then she paused, and poked her head back out. "Damon, I should have said it three years ago but... have a good day."

Damon wiped his eyes on his sleeve. "You too, Mori. Stay safe."

And then the Tardis door closed, and Jack sighed as the little blue police box faded out of sight. "You know Damon, she /is/ coming back. Just not the way you thought she would."

* * *

1. I saw school reunion. The impression I got was that except for Sarah Jane most of the old companions, if not all, ended up dead for one reason or another. Either that or they aged and died.

2. The opening lines of the Aenid - virgil.

3. Also from the Aenid.

4. Referring to the episode "Reset" in which Martha comes to visit Torchwood, and almost ends up staying because Owen dies.


End file.
